The Legend of the Twin Blade Swordsman
by Goa1aso
Summary: Kazuto never quit kendo and became one of the youngest prodigies to hit the scene. How will his kendo skills from real-life translate to his in-game experiences in Aincrad? On hiatus till rewrite.
1. Prologue I

**(A/N: Author's Note)**

 **Goa1aso here, with my first fanfic ever! Not sure how well this story will turn out, but enjoy!**

 **I'm starting out with some backstory for Kazuto in the first couple chapters before we get into the main story arcs of Aincrad.**

 **Some things WILL be changed from canon (who even enjoys reading rewrites of canon?). You may notice that I drew ideas from other fanfics, that is true since I'm slightly frustrated that some great fanfics like The Prince of Swords by ToumaFF have seemingly been abandoned.**

 **Disclaimer: If I owned Sword Art Online, Jesus-kun wouldn't be such a shallow character.**

 **Edited 2/20/2017 10:30 EST - Agent 94 pointed out some obvious grammar mistakes that I had and also gave me some pointers to improve my writing. Hopefully this edit made the chapter better!**

"Speech"

' _Thoughts'_

 _Flashback_

 _ **Speaker Announcement**_

* * *

 **Year 2016**

"Put your damn bogu on, grab a shinai, and let's get going!" Kirigaya Reo shouted angrily at the rebellious eight-year old. Even though he was angry, Reo had to take a moment to admire how much the little boy had grown. He stood at a solid 4'3'', and was on the skinny side. His black hair was tousled, adding to the rebellious look that gleamed in his eyes. He was fidgeting with the hem of his black shirt, as if he didn't want to be in the dojo for one more second.

"I don't wanna!" he pouted childishly, attempting to walk away. A little girl with short black hair stood up from the bench she was sitting on and stopped him before he could move any further. Reo looked at her appreciatively.

Reo always thought that his granddaughter was like a little angel. At seven years old, she was 3'5''. She was a real sweetie, making everyone's heart melt when she smiled or laughed. She always did everything with all her heart, never backing down from a challenge. Her brother really needed to learn from her. Her cute brown eyes were trained on her brother, little hands holding onto Kazuto's black shirtsleeve.

"C'mon Onii-chan, kendo's fun! Plus, you're good at it!" she pouted at him cutely.

Kazuto glared at his little sister. "Sugu, these trainings suck! They're no fun. I'd rather go play on the computer," Kazuto whined, looking at the ground. He glanced up quickly at his grandfather, before leaning in towards the seven-year old girl conspiratorially. "Plus, I feel like he's just using these trainings to make me suffer, don'tcha think?" he angrily whispered.

She looked at him with her black orbs, doing her best impression of a puppy's eyes. "Pweeeeease?" she said in the cutest tone she could muster. "Don't leave me here alone with grandpa. Plus, it's more fun when I train with you!"

Reo walked up to Suguha and patted her head. "See Kazuto, your sister is the embodiment of the spirit that I want to see in any kendo student I have." The old man stood behind her and looked at him expectantly. "Why can't you be more like her," Reo mumbled under his breath.

Kazuto glared at his grandfather, hearing the last remark. His grandfather didn't look very old; in fact, if he didn't have white hair then he probably could pass for a forty-year old. He was very fit for his age – being sixty – and was wearing the robes of a kendo sensei since he was the sensei of the neighborhood dojo. Looking between his grandfather's expectant eyes and Suguha's cute puppy impression, Kazuto exhaled. "Fiiiiiiine. But don't expect me to enjoy this. I'm only doing this because Sugu wants to. Don't think I'm doing it for you, old man."

"Talk to your elders with respect, young man!" his grandfather exploded.

"Fine then, Oji-san." Kazuto bowed sarcastically and walked over to the bench to pick up his gear.

"Yayyyyy~" Suguha cheered happily, as she started putting on her protective gear. Kazuto started putting on his own bogu, grumbling under his breath all the while.

"Why do we even have to put on these stupid things? We never even get to duel each other much less have any chance of getting hit," the boy grunted, pulling the navy-colored bogu over his head.

"Onii-chan, you know that we can't practice fighting without getting the basics down first," Suguha chided.

"Yeah, if you don't get these basic stances and footwork down, you won't be able to beat anyone," Reo added helpfully.

"Okay then Oji-san. Let's get this over with," Kazuto said reluctantly.

They walked from the benches near the edge of the dojo towards the center. The large room was pretty drafty, a decent breeze slipping through the open door probably contributed to that fact. Sunlight filtered through windows near the ceiling. A Japanese flag hung on the wall at the front of the dojo, along with some scrolls with kanji on them.

Kirito and Suguha lined up in the middle of the dojo, facing their grandfather.

"Now, this is how you do suburi," (practice swings) the grandfather explained while preparing to show them. He adjusted his feet, toes pointing forward, so that they were shoulder width apart, balancing on the balls of his feet. He gripped the sword with both hands, pointing the tip straight in front of him. The siblings mirrored his movements. He then quickly brought his sword up, stepped forward with his right foot, and then sharply brought his left foot up to his right foot as he brought his sword down, shouting "Men!" (head strike).

"Now, you try it. Do this twenty times by my count. If you don't get it perfect, I won't count it. Begin!"

Kazuto moaned, attempting to copy the movements that he saw his grandfather make.

"Don't forget to practice your kiai while you're swinging as well!" Reo ordered.

"Ugh, do we have to? I feel so stupid, yelling every time I swing," Kazuto whined.

"Yes! You have to! Show your inner strength and determination!"

Kazuto sighed, before swinging his sword with a frustrated yell.

"No! Keep your feet shoulder width apart! Balance on the balls of your feet!" Reo barked, like a military sergeant.

"Yes, sensei," Kazuto groaned, bringing his feet closer together and swung, yelling again.

Soon, the dojo was filled with the cute battle cries of Suguha and the more reluctant yells of Kazuto, with commands woven between them by Reo.

Two hours later, a happy Suguha skipped out of the dojo into the humid 30 degrees Celsius weather, dragging a very exhausted Kazuto behind her.

"I swear, the old man is a slave driver," he moaned pitifully, barely keeping his balance while his free arm dangled limply by his side.

Suguha turned to her brother smiling, "What do you mean? It was so easy! I had lots of fun today!"

"I'm sorry Ms. I'm-So-Perfect, but he made me do fifty swings more even though I swear I was doing it right all along!" Kazuto said angrily.

"Aww Onii-chan, don't be like that," Suguha let go of his hand and patted his shoulder. "You'll be better than me in no time. I can see it!"

"Thanks, I guess…" Kazuto trailed off in thought. _'I just feel like this style of kendo isn't my thing. Two-handed swings feel so awkward. Are there other styles of kendo that I could try?'_ Kazuto wondered.

"Let's go get some ice-cream!" Suguha exclaimed suddenly, making to veer to the left towards the city. Kazuto sighed, and kept walking along the street straight towards home.

"Ask mom if you really want some. I'm going home and taking a long nap."

* * *

"We're finally here," Kazuto mumbled as he approached the front door of his house. The house was a pretty small one, although it was more than enough for the occupants to live in. There were a couple trees planted in the front, along with some bushes along the driveway. Their backyard consisted of a grassy area with a Sakura tree hanging over a small pond.

Kirigaya Midori watched from the kitchen as her precious children walked into their home with a smile on her face. She was a sweet woman, who cared for her children very much. Her brown hair was swept into a messy bun, held by a clip. She wore a cooking apron, it looked like she was about to start cooking.

"How was practice?" she asked.

"Horrible." "Awesome!" one groaned while the other cheered. Kazuto made a face at Suguha who in turn laughed at him.

"Well mister grumpy-head, if Suguha thought it was awesome, it couldn't have been _that_ bad," the mother chided. "Then again, it _is_ my father that we're talking about here," Midori added thoughtfully as she picked up a magazine from the kitchen counter after wiping her hands with a rag. She handed the magazine to Kazuto.

"Here's the newest issue that was released of the magazine that I'm editing. Maybe you'll find it interesting."

"Thanks mom." Kazuto took the magazine and started heading upstairs to his room. "I'm exhausted; I'll take a look at it later."

As Kazuto walked up the stairs, he could hear his sister badgering his mom for some ice cream to little effect. He opened his bedroom door and sprawled onto the bed with his mom's magazine in hand. He felt utterly exhausted after walking home from the weekly kendo training that his grandfather forced him to do. The boy opened up the colorful magazine that had the title "Amazing New Computers and Parts!" and started reading tiredly.

' _Wow, these new computer parts that are coming out are amazing. I wonder what more the field of technology could produce?'_ Kazuto thought to himself. Before he knew it, he felt himself nodding off before succumbing to a light slumber.

An hour later, some light footsteps running up the stairs of the small house could be heard. Suguha suddenly opened the door and jumped onto his bed, laughing. Kazuto blearily opened his eyes, his hands rubbing his heavy eyelids. "What is it now, Sugu?"

"It's time for dinner Onii-chan!" she said excitedly. "Mom made your favorite, spicy teriyaki burgers!"

"Oh really? Okay, I'm coming!" Kazuto said, the mention of his favorite food chasing away the vestiges of his exhaustion. He bounced up from his bed and ran downstairs with his sister.

Midori watched them run down the stairs as she finished setting the table. Chuckling lightly, she shook her head at their obvious love for food. "No need to run, the food's not going anywhere!" she laughed.

"It's definitely going somewhere; into my tummy!" Kazuto exclaimed childishly, his eyes sparkling at the sight of his favorite meal.

The rest of his family laughed. "Itidakimasu!" they all said before digging into the meal.

Halfway through the meal, Kazuto looked up at his mom in thought.

"What is it, Kazuto?" Midori questioned.

"Oh, it's nothing… I was just wondering if I could get some spare parts to build a computer sometime?" Kazuto asked hopefully. His mom looked at him in shock.

"You know how to build a computer?" she asked in disbelief.

"Well it doesn't seem that hard… I was reading the magazines that you gave me and each piece that I've seen doesn't seem too difficult to put together," the elementary-school boy explained.

Midori continued looking at her adopted son in disbelief. "I guess I could ask around at work to see if they have any spare parts," she said slowly.

"Yay! Thanks mom!" the eight-year old said happily.

A few months later, Kazuto ended up with all the parts he needed to build his computer.

"Just ask if you need help, I'll be in my room doing work!" Midori said, studying her son's thoughtful expression as he sat on the floor of his room, surrounded by seemingly random computer parts.

"Alright, I think I'll be fine," Kazuto replied.

Kazuto hummed to himself as he worked. "This goes here… and that goes.. there? And... I guess I'm done!"

Looking up at the clock, he noted that only half an hour had passed. He stepped back and admired his work. The chassis that he chose was a futuristic looking one; completely black with designs etched onto the sides and front.

He pressed the 'on' button and it glowed green before humming to life. The monitor blinked on, automatically directing him to the system BIOS. Kazuto chose to install Linux onto his computer. He finished going through the setup of the operating system and finally logged in.

The excited elementary-schooler ran down the hall, past the pictures of his family hanging on the walls, and knocked on his mother's door at the end of the hall, seeking her approval.

"I guess you did need help after all, Kazuto?" she said while opening the door.

"Nope! I'm done. I just wanted to show you the final product!" the son beamed at his mother before dragging her to his room. "See?"

Midori looked at the computer monitor in surprise. The fans purred lightly as the computer sat there, waiting for someone to use it.

"Wow… I'm so proud of you!" the mom exclaimed before hugging Kazuto. _'Who knew that he would be so gifted with computers? I guess he really does take after his parents,'_ Midori thought sadly.

Kazuto grinned at her. She looked down at him smiling. "Well, I need to go back to finish editing the magazine. Have fun with your new computer!" the older woman said before walking back to her room.

The boy sat down in front of the computer and began to explore the internet. He came across something that caught his interest: Nito kendo. _'Whoa, you can use two swords in kendo? That's awesome!'_ he thought as he perused over the article that he found. He bookmarked the page for later, and then decided to try out some video games.

* * *

The next week, Kazuto decided to bring up Nito kendo with his grandfather at kendo training. He was met with a stern "No."

"Why not?" Kazuto pouted childishly.

"Because you have to master the basics of one sword first," Reo-sensei said resolutely. Kazuto continued to pout, and then a thought hit him.

' _If I master basic chudan kendo, he'll have to let me learn nito kendo!'_ Kazuto's face brightened considerably.

With that, he threw himself into the day's training without complaint. Suguha and his grandfather noticed the change in attitude. After training, while he was putting away his gear, his grandfather came up to him and clapped him on the shoulder.

"Good work today. I'll make a kendo champion out of you yet!" Reo said with a smile. Kazuto looked at him uncertainly, unsure if his grandfather was tricking him in some way. In the past, he never was on good terms with his sensei.

"Yeah! See Onii-chan, kendo is fun!" Suguha said sunnily.

"I can't say I had fun but I know what I want to do now!" Kazuto exclaimed, with a determined expression on his face. "I'll be learning nito in no time."

As the weeks went by and the two siblings progressed through elementary school, Kazuto began to spend more and more time on the computer. Be it video games or just surfing the web, the young boy was fascinated and spent most of his free time glued to the screen.

 **Year 2018**

After two years of the same cycle of elementary school, kendo, and surfing the web, Kazuto finally got curious about himself. More specifically, his birth certificate which had basic info about his birth. It all began with a childish fight at school.

" _You're fat!" a rather chubby looking kid exclaimed._

" _What? Coming from you?" Kazuto retorted._

" _Yeah! Why won't you share the rice cakes? Fatty!" the same child replied. The teachers had passed out rice cakes to the students by group in honor of Children's Day. Kazuto being Kazuto naturally tried to keep most of the food as he could to himself._

" _I bet I weigh less than you!" Kazuto countered. They proceeded to share their weights even though Kazuto was clearly much skinnier than the other boy._

" _Man! I guess that you do weigh less than me," the other elementary-schooler said despondently. Seeing that he was beaten in that department, he then thought of another way to make himself think that Kazuto was fat. "I bet that I weighed less than you when you were born, fatty!"_

 _Kazuto almost choked on the delectable rice cake that he was stuffing into his mouth. "WHFFMFMF?" he exclaimed through the food. He swallowed and then proceeded to shoot down the other kid's statement._

" _What are you talking about? What you weighed when you were born has nothing to do with being fat now!" Kazuto exclaimed, marveling at the other kid's childishness._

" _Well, it does in my book," the chubby youngster insisted childishly, stamping his foot._

 _The Kirigaya child proceeded to ignore the other's complaints and scarfed down a couple more rice cakes._

The now ten-year old was extremely curious to see how much he weighed when he was born, compared to the average. He hacked onto the government's national registries and found his birth certificate. He stared at the rather plain-looking document in surprise and shock. One could say that curiosity killed the cat.

Kazuto sat near the front door of his house for the rest of the afternoon, waiting for his 'mother' to come home from work. He didn't even feel like going to the weekly kendo session, even with Suguha's insistence. She ended up going alone, looking back at her brother sadly.

When he heard his 'mom' pull into the driveway, he stood up and greeted her. "Hello, Oba-san," he said peevishly.

Midori looked at her 'son', her face morphing between confusion, surprise, shock, and then finally sadness. She sat down at the laminated oak kitchen table in the dining room and motioned Kazuto to do the same. He sat down with a plop and stared at her expectantly, waiting for her explanation.

"Well Kazuto, I don't know how you found out that you were adopted by me. I guess that you're curious as to why you were adopted. To tell you the truth, both of your parents died in a car crash just after you were born. I couldn't let you be taken by social services so I decided to adopt you and raise you as my son, a brother to my Suguha," the older woman explained tearfully.

Kazuto sat there emotionlessly, before getting up and walking up to his room. He laid on his bed, looking around his room as if seeing it for the first time. His walls were a dark shade of gray while his ceiling was white. The computer that he built himself sat on his desk in the corner of his room. The walls were bare, except for the window that let in some of the dying sunlight. He stood up and closed the shutters, leaving his room in darkness. He laid down again, staring at the ceiling for a while, just thinking about what his parents might have been like.

Soon, Suguha came home from kendo training. Her mom explained what just happened, and Suguha came running into his room.

"Onii-chan! Are you feeling okay?" she asked while knocking on his door.

A muffled "Go away" could be heard from inside. Suguha opened the door and then sat on the bed, beside Kazuto.

"Onii-chan, talk to me please," Suguha cried.

"Stop calling me that! I'm not your brother!" Kazuto said angrily.

"You are! Just because we aren't blood-related doesn't mean we aren't still siblings! You are and always will be my onii-chan," Suguha whimpered, hugging Kazuto.

Kazuto sat there, motionless for a few minutes before he relented, hugging her back. They stayed like that for a while, one sibling comforting the other.

Kazuto ended up closer than ever to his sister and aunt after that day.

* * *

 **Well, that's all for Chapter 1! Is it too short? Too long? (That's what she said?) Anything else to improve on? Leave a review and tell me what you thought of it! PM me if you have any thoughts and/or complaints about how the story should go.**


	2. Prologue II

**(A/N: Author's Note)**

 **I'm back with another update! I edited the first chapter, so if you haven't read that version please do!**

 **This chapter may remind some people of the first chapter of The Prince of Swords by ToumaFF - I subconsciously wrote similar events without even realizing it... oops? Well, credit is given where it is due; I applaud your writing ToumaFF. I wish you'd just come back to finish your story ;-;**

 **If you're ever wondering when I'll get to writing another chapter, check my profile. I'll make sure to post my progress on chapters.**

 **Edited 2/26/2017 1:20 AM - I combined the Omake that I originally wrote with this chapter; it is now at the end of the chapter. I also changed the dates from Year 2020 to Year 2021 since I realized Kazuto's birthday was in October, making it impossible for him to be 12 years old at the original time. Oops?  
**

 **Disclaimer: If I owned Sword Art Online, Asuna would have more personality after getting 'married' to Kirito.**

"Speech"

' _Thoughts'_

 _Past events_

 ** _Speaker Announcement_**

* * *

 **Year 2021 - February 14th  
**

The shrill cry of the bell signaling the end of school jarred the black-haired boy out of his daze, dropping his pencil to the ground. A couple girls behind him snickered at his absent-mindedness, then blushed as he swiveled his head to stare them down.

Kazuto was now twelve years old. His effeminate looks coupled with his rather scrawny looking arms and legs led many of his classmates to call him a 'pretty boy'.

One might think that he was extremely popular due to his looks but in reality he was quiet and reserved. He wore black almost all the time when not at school and kept to himself. That didn't stop girls from crushing on him all the time however, which in turn caused lots of guys to try to 'buddy' up with him.

Kazuto stop glaring at the girls and sighed, picking up his pencil and started putting his textbooks away. _'I wasn't paying attention in class again. At this rate, I'm going to fail my history class,'_ he thought while packing up.

Someone cleared their throat behind him. He turned around, looked at the impishly smiling face of his classmate, and then promptly turned back around to pick up his bag and leave.

"Aw come on Kazuto, don't be like that!" Takumi whined, trying to get Kazuto's attention. The black-haired boy groaned, turning back around and gave Takumi a once-over.

Takumi was slightly shorter than Kazuto, with wire-frame glasses set over his mischievously twinkling eyes. He was skinny as well, and wore the required school uniform although his tie was extremely loose around his neck. They had played the same MMORPG at one point, but Kazuto had stopped playing once his 'buddy' kept trying to get him to join his group of friends.

"Why can't you just leave me alone?" Kazuto sighed, and attempted to walk away.

"C'mon man! We have a raid on the new boss coming up tonight! I was wondering if you- "

Kazuto cut him off abruptly. "I owe Sugu a favor since I missed her last kendo tournament. She wanted to do something today, sorry man. Besides, I already told you that I quit playing that game."

Takumi looked at Kazuto with barely restrained mirth. "Oh, so your sister wants some Onii-chan time? On Valentine's day even?" he said suggestively.

Kazuto didn't notice Takumi's change in tone. "Yeah. Now I gotta go pick her up from her school. See you never." He promptly walked out of the small classroom into the loud and crowded hallways, heading towards the front of the school.

The shorter middle-schooler sighed. He walked back to his group of friends who were sitting in a group of desks that they'd pulled up, eagerly waiting to see if Kazuto would join them in their gaming later.

"Mission failed. Thwarted by his sister again," Takumi said disappointedly.

The group groaned in unison. "The one who's really good at kendo? That sister?"

"Yup."

"Well shit. We can't really do anything about that, she'd thrash us if we got in the way of her Onii-chan time," a rather brawny looking middle-schooler said, looking plenty frightened.

The group nodded to each other sagely, agreeing with the statement. A chubby kid looked out the window, at the courtyard in front of the school.

"Wait. Look at what's going outside!" the kid exclaimed.

The group of friends looked out the window, to see an embarrassed girl being pushed by her giggling friends in front of a very confused Kazuto.

The girl had flowing brown hair that reached her waist, and her face was extremely pretty. She was… more well-endowed than other girls at this age, and looked like a runner, judging by her toned legs. The school's uniform actually looked good on her.

"That bastard! That's Sakura from our class! She's like the most popular – and prettiest – girl in the school!"

They watched as Sakura, face extremely pink, handed a foil-shaped heart to Kazuto. He took the heart, hugged her, whispered something in her ear – which made her face resemble a tomato – and then walked out the school's front gates nonchalantly. The group of girls who put Sakura up to it crowded around her, asking all sorts of questions while she tried to hide her burning face in her hands.

"Oh my god. She just gave him a chocolate heart. On Valentine's day. The lucky fuckboy," the buff guy moaned bitterly, putting his face into his hands.

"Calm down guys. He's a nice guy, you all should know that," Takumi said, trying to placate the increasingly angry (and jealous) group of guys.

"Why does it seem like every single girl in this school has a crush on Kirigaya? What does he have that I don't?" the chubby boy raged while gesticulating wildly.

The group laughed. "Well, besides your… unique physique, he's just too nice to everyone," Takumi said, his brown eyes twinkling with amusement.

"Just say it. He's fat," the brawny boy said bluntly.

"Hey, you! At least I don't just have muscles for my brains!" the stout boy retorted.

The cluster of boys laughed uproariously again. Takumi tried to elaborate more. "He just has this… aura that makes people want to know him. I don't know how he does it, but it's definitely there. You know what I mean?"

The other boys looked thoughtful for a moment, then slowly nodded their agreement. They _did_ feel like they wanted to befriend him, that's why they always asked him to play games with them.

They settled into a comfortable silence for a while, as they watched the group of girls disperse.

Kazuto exhaled loudly as he walked past the school's rather ornate front gates. _'Why do girls do that to each other? They just make someone extremely embarrassed while I'm put into a rather delicate situation. Damn it all.'_

 _Kazuto was walking through the front courtyard of the school, admiring the designs that the tiles made on the floor. They looked like flowers, more specifically like the flowers of the Sakura tree in his backyard._

 _He looked up, feeling like someone was watching him. He spotted a group of girls who were whispering to each other while standing next to the decorative wood-made Japanese style gates that the school used, casting furtive glances at him._

 _He looked at them warily until they pushed a member out in front of him. She was rather cute, blushing wildly like that. She stuttered out her name – "S-s-s-a-k-kura" – and then held out the heart-shaped chocolate, all the while looking anywhere but his face._

 _Meanwhile, Kazuto was in deep thought. He had to be strategic about this; if he turned her down then the whole school would hate him. If he accepted her, then… Sugu might kill him. Or castrate him. Who knows? Sugu can be vicious when she wants to._

 _Kazuto made his decision and proceeded to execute the strategy he had employed countless times before. He took the chocolate, leaned in, said she was pretty along with some other nice things, and gave her a hug. Then he left, waving goodbye without looking back._

Brought back to the present by the unpleasant feeling of the object in his hands melting, the effeminate-looking boy looked at the tinfoil-wrapped chocolate in his hands cautiously. After he determined that it was going to melt completely in a matter of minutes, he decided to eat it.

The chocolate was decidedly good, the middle-schooler thought as he kept walking in the direction of his sister's school. Maybe he should reconsider dating the girl. _'What was her name again? S… Saki? No... Sakura? Yeah that sounds right…'_ Kazuto thought absentmindedly, enjoying the treat.

He shook his head, clearing the thought. _'It's too early to die, and I think I want to have kids in the future,'_ the middle-schooler sighed, wondering why his sister – er cousin – was so damn possessive of him.

He stretched his arms above his head, and then continued to walk down the street. He admired the weather; springtime in Kawagoe City was extremely nice. It wasn't too hot or cold, perfect for taking a nice walk in. He turned his head, watching a bird fly to its nest in a tree, and whistled to himself as he strolled his way down the block towards Suguha's school.

Suguha went to a girl's only middle-school, since it was extremely famous for its legendary club for a particular sport. As he approached it, he couldn't help but note the similarities in its architecture to his own school. Perhaps they had hired the same people to build it?

Kazuto walked through the front gates, wondering where he should go to find his cousin. He ignored the wide-eyed stares from the girls standing in the courtyard who probably were wondering what the hell he was doing walking around in an all-girls school. The pre-teen suddenly noticed a pair of girls walking through the courtyard; more specifically the items in their bags. Shinai and bogu!

' _Legendary kendo club, hmm?'_ Kazuto mused, smiling to himself inwardly.

He approached the duo, preparing to ask them to direct him to the dojo. He tapped on the short brunette's shoulder.

"Hey, are you girls headed to the dojo?"

The two girls turned around and did a double take, not expecting a guy – much less a good looking one – to be there.

"Hai. Why do you ask?" the brunette asked, with a hint of pink on her cheeks.

"Well, I was wondering if I could maybe watch for a bit before practice ends?"

"Sure! Let's go!" the blonde replied, a little too eagerly, unreasonably happy that he was interested in kendo.

The pair suddenly grabbed his hands and practically dragged him towards the dojo, while he mouthed 'save me' to the onlookers.

Kazuto was finally able to break free of his captors as soon as the dojo was in sight. The dojo was a magnificent sight to behold, with sloping red roofs making it look like it was straight from much older times of Japan. It was made almost solely of bamboo, adding to the ancient Japanese feel. The school flag hung from the front of the building, and Sakura trees were planted around it.

As he walked through the main doors, the first thing that struck him was how large the indoor area was. The large expanse of hardwood floor stretched out all around him. There were several taped-off areas that marked the boundaries for matches. A few pairs of students were sparring at the moment, yells and the clack of shinai on shinai filled the air.

Kazuto strolled around the edges of the dojo, observing the sparring matches going on. _'That girl's form and technique is very good but her speed is lacking. Her opponent seems to be on a completely different level than her; the technique is flawless and her strikes are lightning fast. Perhaps it's a senior member who's teaching a younger member,'_ Kazuto mused, as he walked by.

A flash of short black hair caught his eye; he could recognize that hair cut anywhere. The girl in question had grown a lot since she was seven. The now eleven-year old was a head shorter than her older cousin. She was developing nicely; puberty beginning to change the cute little angel to a beautiful woman.

Suguha seemed to be in an intense match. The preteen walked over – avoiding the boundaries of the sparring matches going on – and then sat down, leaning against the wall while carefully analyzing the match in front of him.

' _Sugu's form and technique is great as always. Her strikes are swift and precise as well. Her opponent seems to be almost as good as her in those aspects but in terms of strength, she outclasses Sugu. It'll be a close match,'_ Kazuto nodded to himself, satisfied with his observations.

The black-haired girl lunged with a cry, going for the "men" (head strike) while the blonde blocked. The blades collided.

-CLACK-

The two blades were locked, both girls struggling to push each other back. The blonde stomped, and shoved her opponent back a few feet. They stared each other down, feinting, trying to find an opening they could exploit. The tips of the bamboo blades smacked against each other as the girls felt out the other's movements.

Suguha abruptly noticed the unexpected spectator of the match out of the corner of her eye, and her guard dropped for a split second. The taller girl saw the opportunity and took it, lunging in for a "kote" (wrist strike). The distracted girl brought her guard back up a little too late, yelping in surprise. The combatants broke apart and began feeling out the defenses once again.

Suguha bereted herself in her mind, cursing her inattentiveness. She watched the shoulders and hips of her opponent, looking for an opening. The girl's shoulders turned left slightly, and Suguha took the slight movement as an opening to strike. She lunged forward with a battle cry, going for a "do" (chest strike). However, her opponent seemed prepared for the attack as she brought her shinai to the side to parry the blow, and then struck Suguha on the head with viper-like movement.

With that, the match was decided. Suguha sighed, and then walked up to the visitor who was still watching, apparently sizing up the girl who just beat her.

"Onii-chan! You made me lose!" Suguha pouted, crossing her arms while standing in front of Kazuto.

"Hey Sugu. You should know to never let your guard down or be distracted in a match," he chided, grinning. "You wanna go now?"

"Sure! Let me go tell the sensei and pack up my stuff!" she replied excitedly, before she skipped off. The blonde that she was sparring walked up to Kazuto.

"So you're Su-chan's brother?" the blonde questioned.

Kazuto looked at her in surprise, not expecting her to talk to him. She had long blonde hair, that went down to the small of her back. Her arms and legs were well-toned, most likely from the training that she did for kendo. She was slightly taller than him, and had a curious look on her face.

"Yeah, I am," Kazuto replied. "And you are...?"

"Oh, right. Where are my manners? My name is Mei!"

"Ah, nice to meet you Mei. Sugu's told me a lot about you actually, she says that you're really good at kendo. From what I saw, you are extremely good; you probably could compete and possibly win in regionals!"

"I-I'm not th-that good but I'm glad to hear that you two think so highly of me," she stuttered while blushing.

"Onii-chan!" The two turned and saw Suguha a distance away, with the sensei in tow.

The sensei was an older woman, who looked to be in her late thirties or early forties. Her brown hair was put up in a messy bun, and she wore a traditional blue robe. She was frowning slightly, looking at Kazuto with a hint of displeasure.

"Onii-chan!" Suguha repeated as she got closer, with a worried look on her face.

"What is it?" Kazuto asked, slightly confused why she would bring her sensei to him. Suguha began to speak but the sensei shot her a pointed glare, before facing Kazuto.

"What do you think you're doing here young man? The dojo is not a place to flirt with girls!"

"U-um I was here to pick up my cousin, Suguha," Kazuto spluttered, not liking the implications that the older woman was suggesting.

"Is that so? I'll have you know; I don't let my seitos leave early from practice unless if it's an emergency! Especially if they have a tournament coming up!" she turned to Suguha and continued her tirade. "And you! You of all people should be putting in the extra hours! You know that nationals are coming up next month!"

Suguha's eyes were downcast through all of this, and then she looked up at Kazuto with the cutest puppy eyes he'd ever seen. He groaned, cursing himself for the umpteenth time for being unable to ignore them.

"I respect your policies, but I think that she's had enough practice," Kazuto said. "Her form and technique are on point, and her movements are sharp and precise. The only thing that she lacks at the moment would be strength, and I don't think that more practice would really help," he explained mindlessly, oblivious to Suguha's blushing face and her sensei's rather surprised one.

"Who are you, young man? How do you know so much?" the woman asked curiously.

"My name is Kazuto Kirigaya…" Kazuto said, before stopping to take in the widened eyes of everyone in the vicinity.

"Uhhh what's wrong?" he asked pensively, not liking the looks in the eyes of the crowd of girls that had suddenly formed around him as Suguha watched on amusedly.

"You're THE Kazuto?" the crowd exclaimed.

"Yeah…? My name's Kazuto, what of it?" he said nervously, trying to edge away from the group.

"I don't believe you," the sensei said. "Why would the famous young prodigy of kendo come here?"

Kazuto felt trapped. His mind quickly analyzed all the possible escape routes. _'If I slide through that girl's legs and then start running… I would have a two second head start. No, that won't work… plus I'd look like a pervert for doing it. Maybe I could try to fight my way out? Nah… too many girls with pointy sticks. Aha! I know! I'll fight the sensei! If I prove who I am, there's a seventy-percent chance that they leave me alone after!'_

"Why don't you spar with me to find out?" Kazuto said after a few moments of deliberating.

Suguha squealed suddenly, with stars in her eyes. Kazuto could barely hear her saying something about 'Onii-chan', 'sensei', and 'must-see' before his attention turned back to the older woman.

"Why not? Let's see how good you really are!" she said.

The whole dojo stopped their activities and gathered around the designated area where the sparring match was about to take place. Whispers of excitement and wonder floated around the spectators, all of them speculating who the boy was and why the sensei was about to fight him.

Kazuto walked to the middle of the arena, without a bogu. He held two shinais in his hands with a relaxed grip. He looked comfortable, still wearing his navy school uniform with his tie loosened considerably. The crowd's murmurings escalated, unused to seeing a practitioner of nito kendo.

The sensei walked into the cordoned-off area with cheers from her students. She wore a black bogu, and held her shinai to the side in one hand.

She looked at him questioningly. "Why aren't you wearing any bogu?"

"I don't need it," Kazuto replied bluntly.

The crowd gasped. Will their sensei take this insult lying down?

"We'll see about that! I'll cut your ego down a size!" she exclaimed angrily.

The two fighters bowed to each other before readying their stances. Kazuto held one shinai up above his head, with the other pointing towards his opponent. His grip was relaxed yet firm at the same time, his stance also relaxed but ready to respond in an instant.

The sensei held her shinai with both hands, point it straight in front of her in practiced familiarity. The onlookers could tell that both were veterans to the sport. Kazuto stared his opponent down, noting every single movement.

' _She looks rather angry. Her movements will no doubt be swift and strong, but angry people are always predictable,'_ he thought, while keeping his guard up.

The other fighter began a series of extremely aggressive feints, trying to get through Kazuto's guard. He adjusted his stance to every feint, not letting any opening show. Suddenly, she lunged forward with a shout of anger, swinging her shinai like a viper towards his head with excessive force.

Kazuto brought both of his bamboo swords up in a cross, one supporting the other, before she even swung. The swords met with a resounding -CLACK-. He held her attack off effortlessly, utilizing the leverage that two swords gave when blocking.

They locked swords, trying to push each other backwards. Neither relented for a few seconds, so they backed off, going back to feeling out each other's defenses. Kazuto narrowed his eyes and started strategizing while keeping his guard up.

' _From her first attack, I can tell that she is definitely angry. Expect predictable attacks. Her form and technique is perfect, but it seems that she is weaker on the left side, as she seems to be favoring it. I'll wait for her to make the next move before countering. My best bet would have to be forcing her out of bounds.'_ Kazuto analyzed her carefully, while keeping his eyes trained on the sensei's shoulders.

Kazuto started being more aggressive, feinting towards her left side. She slid backwards a little, trying to keep him off of her weak side. Soon, his opponent got fed up of his feints and launched forward with a barrage of attacks.

The crowd ooh-ed and ahh-ed at the ferocious display of swordsmanship. However, Kazuto seemed to block every single attack with grace, never flinching, and gave up no ground. He smirked inwardly before parrying an attack with one blade and then striking out with his other. The sensei was forced to bring her blade back quickly to block the strike, before their blades were locked again.

The two combatants struggled again, trying to push the other away. Kazuto stomped his foot and roared, making the sensei flinch for a split second. That was all that he needed before he shoved her backwards with supreme strength. She flailed, trying to keep her balance before she was forced to jump backwards, out of bounds.

The observing students were all deathly silent for a few moments, before erupting into cheers. The sensei looked at Kazuto, eyes glinting with respect.

"That was a good fight young man. I expect nothing less from last year's international champion," she said with a note of admiration tinging her words.

"Thank you. I'll be taking Sugu now before I get mobbed by your seitos. See you!" Kazuto said hurriedly, before taking off to find Suguha.

The sensei chuckled as she watched Suguha mount her brother's back before he ran out of the dojo, the crowd of girls giving chase for a little while before giving up.

* * *

The effeminate pre-teen crouched in front of Suguha, motioning her to climb onto his back. She looked around at the gathering crowd of girls – some she recognized as her classmates – and blushed before complying. The boy grabbed the back of her legs to keep her steady, and then took off on a dead sprint out of the dojo, towards the front of the school.

As the boy beneath her dashed across the dojo's laminated wood floor, Suguha looked behind her and saw some girls in the crowd trying to keep up with Kazuto. They fell farther and farther behind, until they slowed down to a stop; disappointment etched on their faces. Then she saw her sensei, who had a wry smile on her face, observing the getaway.

Suguha threw her head back and cheered, feeling the rush of the chilly air ruffling her hair as Kazuto kept up his pace. Soon, he started to slow down as he passed the rather ornate front gates of the school, panting heavily.

"Are they still chasing us?" he gasped, trying to catch his breath.

"No, you lost them a while back. They looked kind of disappointed that they couldn't have the chance to meet their idol," Suguha laughed airily, still exhilarated by their sudden flight.

Kazuto slowed down to a walk. "Do you wanna get off now?" he asked, already guessing the answer to his question.

"Nah, I like it up here," his cousin replied happily, snuggling into his back. The boy sighed, and checked his phone for the time. 6:30 PM.

"So, what did you have in mind for the rest of today?"

"Hmm… Let's go out for dinner!"

"Should we wait for mom? I think she'd enjoy it too."

"I-I was kind of h-hoping it would be just me and you…" Suguha stuttered, pressing her face into his back, trying to hide the pink on her cheeks.

"O-oh okay then. Text mom that we'll be out for dinner and I'll take you to that nice restaurant down the street. How does that sound?" Kazuto said as he looked up and down the street, letting a shiny blue hybrid car pass before crossing.

"That sounds awesome!" the girl on his back chirped excitedly, as she pulled out her phone to shoot a text to their mom.

* * *

Kazuto set Suguha down in front of the restaurant. Its name apparently was "Ogakiku Restaurant". Its side walls were made of brick, but the front and interior seemed to be made of bamboo. It was three stories tall, although quite narrow; it looked as if it was squeezed between the two buildings next to it. There were sheets of paper with kanji on them hanging from the second floor, and some flowers near the front door.

The pair walked into the restaurant, immediately liking the ambience that it had. Soft music was playing in the background, and the inside had a traditional Japanese feel to it. There was a hostess standing to the side of the door. She looked like she was in her late twenties, and had black silky hair that was shoulder length. She wore a dark blue kimono, and geta on her feet. The older woman noticed them immediately as they walked in.

"Well, hello! You two must be here on a special Valentine's day date!" she winked, causing both Kazuto and Suguha to blush.

"U-uh we're not – " Kazuto stammered, before Suguha cut him off.

"Table for two please!" the girl finished while giving her cousin a glare, daring him to say anything more.

The hostess clapped her hands. "Coming right up! Follow me please!"

The duo followed closely behind her as she expertly weaved her way through tables and waiters that were rushing around with food on their platters. She went up the stairs near the back of the room, leading them to the second floor. The woman then swept towards the front of the building, where tables were set up in front of the large windows that looked over the front of the restaurant.

"And here is your table!"

The table they were given was a cozy-looking booth, with the window next to it giving them a splendid view of the sunset.

The hostess smiled at them, "I have to say, you two make an extremely cute couple. Especially after I saw you, young man, carrying your little girlfriend on your back all the way here!"

Kazuto's face flushed in embarrassment, not wanting to say anything to anger Suguha since she was in an extremely happy mood at the moment.

Suguha smiled back at the hostess, thanking her. The older woman handed them with the restaurant's dinner menus, and left. Kazuto sat down on one side of the booth as Suguha sat down across from him.

The two each ordered a medium unagi when the waiter came around after a couple minutes. They sat back and relaxed in a comfortable silence, until Suguha started gushing over the 'epic' sparring match that she had just watched.

"Sensei is so skilled! Her last series of attacks was so amazing! But the way Onii-chan was able to block every single one was so awesome! Plus, the finish! I wish I was that good at kendo!" she enthused, going on and on about the details of the match.

"Eh. I just analyzed her approach and thought of the best way to win the fight. You could do it too! Besides, you're great at kendo as well; you're competing in the national tournament that's coming up next month!" Kazuto rebutted, trying to downplay his victory.

Suguha's already enthusiastic expression brightened even more at the mention of the upcoming tournament. "Yeah! I'm gonna win it this time! Especially if Onii-chan shows up!"

Kazuto chuckled, "Yeah, I'll be there for sure. Can't miss out on one of the biggest tournaments of your life!"

Soon, their unagi arrived, the plates put down on the table with flourish by the waiter. The freshwater eel smelled delicious, and looked just as good too. The cousins dug in, moaning at the delectable taste and fluffy texture of the eel. The rice that came with it was just as savory; moist and fluffy perfection.

A short ten minutes later, the pair leaned back again, completely satisfied with their meal.

"That was the best eel I've ever had. We should come here more often," Kazuto sighed in contentment.

Suguha blushed at the implications. Then, summoning her courage, she stood up and walked over to Kazuto's side of the booth and sat down next to him. "Yeah. Thanks for the amazing meal Onii-chan!" she said, hugging him.

The boy looked at the younger girl in surprise, before hugging her back. "Any time, Sugu."

Suguha leaned over and put her head on Kazuto's shoulder. They sat like that in their booth for a while, watching the sunset. The waiter came back around with the receipt, which Kazuto paid for with his impressively deep wallet that was a result of winning last year's international tournament.

Thirty minutes later, the sun was hidden behind the mountains in the horizon. The pre-teen dug around in his pocket and found his phone, checking the time. 9:00 PM. He got ready to go home, only to find that the girl had fallen asleep on his shoulder. Her mouth was slightly ajar, and she looked extremely cute and innocent sleeping like that.

"Sugu," Kazuto shook her shoulder a little, trying to rouse her. "It's time to go home, the restaurant is closing soon."

"Whaa…" she mumbled sleepily, lifting her head from his shoulder and rubbing her eyes.

"It's time to go home. You ready?"

"Yeah…" Suguha yawned, stretching her arms. She stood up with Kazuto and leaned on him, still feeling extremely drowsy. The boy carefully guided her down the stairs, past the now-empty tables, and back outside into the chilly night air. Suguha still wasn't standing on her own, looking as if she was going to fall asleep again.

"Ugh, if we walk like this we won't get home until it's extremely late," Kazuto sighed before crouching in front of Suguha. "I guess I'll have to carry you again."

She got onto his back for the second time in the day, immediately resting her head on his shoulder and falling asleep again.

Kazuto chuckled lightly, and started the trek home through the cool twilight.

* * *

 **Annnd that's it for Chapter 2 of the Prologue! That was my first time writing fluff! Leave me a review and tell me what you think! Until next time!  
**


	3. Prologue III

**(A/N: Author's Note)**

 **Bleh. Wrote this chapter in pretty much one sitting (with a break to play a game of CSGO). Hope you all enjoy it!**

 **P.S. I combined the omake with Chapter 2, since it kinda fit at the end. I also changed the dates in Chapter 2 from Year 2020 to 2021, since I realized that Kazuto's birthday was in October, thus making it impossible for him to be 12 years old at the time.  
**

 **P.P.S. Over 1k views within the first week! Feelsgoodman. The reviews, follows, and favorites are keeping me motivated to write more, thanks a lot!**

 **Disclaimer: If I owned Sword Art Online, Kirito would actually have to struggle instead of some lame-ass Deus-Ex-Machina crap.**

"Speech"

' _Thoughts'_

 _Past events_

 _ **Speaker Announcement**_

* * *

 **Year 2022 – June 14** **th**

The now thirteen-year old boy sat on a couch in the middle of the small house's living room. The air conditioning was on at full blast, chasing away the heat that came with summertime in Kawagoe City. He stared intently at the television in front of him, watching what seemed to be a kendo match. One of the contestants wielded two shinai, while the other seemed to be a much older woman.

The quality of the recording was extremely terrible; it was shaking everywhere as if it was recorded from a phone. There were a lot of girls' voices in the video, and the clacks of bamboo sword on sword rang over the din. However, it was still possible to tell what was going on in the match.

Kazuto paused the recording, noticing something. Suguha's sensei had shifted her footing, leading his past-self to think that she was favoring her left side.

' _There's no way that she could become a sensei if she had a weakness like that. I wonder why she did that,'_ he thought, while examining the footage further.

Suddenly, the answer struck him like a lightning bolt. _'She played me! She purposely threw the match, choreographing my every move so that she lost!'_

Kazuto sighed, feeling a little better now. His seemingly overwhelming victory over the sensei was bothering him for a while. There was no way that the sensei of the 'legendary kendo club' could lose to a young kendo practitioner like him, prodigy or otherwise.

The middle-schooler continued to watch the low-quality footage, analyzing each movement that he made, as well as his opponent's.

' _My footwork when blocking could be better, if I'm not careful I could easily trip and fall. That swing was kind of sloppy from me. Ooh nice technique and form, I need to learn more from this sensei.'_ Kazuto's analysis abruptly ended when the shoddy recording stopped.

' _I need to watch more of my own footage. Sometimes the best teacher is yourself; learn from your own mistakes.'_

He proceeded to find some videos of previous years' kendo tournaments that he participated in, and watched some more. A particular match soon caught his interest; the finals of the last international tournament.

His opponent was a well-built teenager who looked like he was fifteen years old, when he was actually thirteen. He had slightly long brown hair, and stood a couple inches taller than Kazuto. His face was set in determination, his eyes promising utter defeat to anyone who stood in his path to being the champion.

' _I remember this match. What was his name… Coper? I think that was it.'_ The teenager watched as his past-self parried a rather fierce blow following up with a viper-like 'men' (head) strike before they backed up, resetting the field.

' _Yeah, this guy was fast and strong but I could easily beat him in the mental game. I can see why he made it to the finals, but he isn't strong nor quick enough in the mental aspect,'_ Kazuto remembered, as he watched himself proceed to stomp the opposition in a devastating victory. His opponent looked distraught, anger showing in his face before storming off as the crowd cheered for the new champion.

' _I hope I face him again in the finals of this upcoming international tournament. I'm sure I can beat him again,'_ Kazuto thought rather haughtily, already imagining his opponent's face of defeat. _'This tournament should be easy enough, especially now that I'm near the top of the age-bracket.'_

* * *

 **Year 2022 – July 1** **st**

A moderately plump, well-dressed man stepped up to the podium, and spoke in a rather annoying nasally voice.

 _ **Welcome, everyone, to the World Kendo Championship (WKC)! We have quite the lineup of young talents for you this year! The age brackets that are competing this year are: Ages 10-14, Ages 15-18, and Ages 19-22! Without further ado, here are the countries that are participating!**_

As each country was called, the respective members walked out towards the center of the massive expanse of laminated oak floor. The tournament was held in an indoor arena, named Nihon Budokan, located in the heart of Tokyo. The venue looked to be made mainly of concrete. It was three stories tall, with each story being larger in terms of width than the previous.

The spectators sat in seats that were elevated above the floor of the dojo, surrounding the participants from all angles. There were two floors of seats for them.

The onlookers erupted into cheers after every country was called out to the center of the floor. Soon, all the competitors were all gathered in the center of the stadium. The athletes bowed in unison to the crowd, before dispersing again.

Kazuto smiled as he walked towards the waiting area; the similarities between the opening ceremonies of the WKC and the Olympics never ceased to amaze him.

* * *

Kazuto dispatched his latest opponent in ill-concealed contempt. _'These guys are all extremely bad. How did they even make it to internationals? Even my cousin could beat these newbies,'_ he thought in disgust, his face contorted into a sneer at the triviality of his competition.

The tournament was a walk in the park for the teenager this year; it seemed as if anyone who gave him trouble in years before all miraculously disappeared. He usually analyzed matches when he wasn't in a fight himself, but the boy was so thoroughly disappointed in the matches this year that he just sat back with his eyes closed and played music through his earbuds.

As the day wore on, the number of matches going on throughout the dojo floor gradually diminished as the tournaments reached the end of the knockout stages. After what felt like an eternity of rather boring fights and waiting, Kazuto finally made it to the finals of the tournament.

Kazuto's eyes widened, and then snorted in amusement when he looked across the floor to see who his next opponent was. It was Coper again, just like two years ago.

Coper hadn't really changed in appearance in the two years that had passed. He was still taller than Kazuto and had the same hairstyle. The only difference was that he seemed a little more well-built, and his eyes were more calculating than before.

' _Oh please. If he's like the last time I fought him, this should be the easiest fight of my life,'_ the former champion thought arrogantly, fed up with the lack of competition on what was supposed to be the most competitive stage in the world. _'I guess that the first place prize is mine!'_

The announcer stepped up to the podium to speak again, with the same nasally whine.

 _ **And for the final match of the day, ladies and gentlemen, we have the returning champion Kazuto of Japan, versus the two-year straight finalist, Coper of Germany! Give it up for them!**_

The crowd erupted into cheers, and Kazuto strode onto the arena from the left. Coper strode in from the right, his face set in determination, extremely reminiscent of his facial expression of previous years. His eyes looked as if they were on fire, staring down Kazuto, who just looked back at him passively with an air of confidence.

The stare-down was ended abruptly when Kazuto looked towards the sound of his name being called. He spotted his cousin jumping up and down, waving a sign with his face on it. The black-haired teenager chuckled and waved at Suguha before turning his attention to the referees who approached the field.

The competitors and referees lined up and faced the front of the dojo, bowing in unison before setting up.

Kazuto and Coper resumed their staring contest as the referees signified the beginning of the match; the crowd calming down to silence, allowing the competitors to have full concentration.

The shorter boy eyed his opponent's movements carefully, noting that the other boy's actions were more sure and calculated than the previous years'. The two continued to circle, waiting for the other to make a move, trying not to make the first mistake.

' _I should be able to win easily, regardless if he has improved or not,_ ' Kazuto thought as he finally got tired of the inaction, before opting to dart forward with lightning speed, going for the 'do' (chest) strike. A mistake.

Coper grinned slightly, as if he anticipated that Kazuto would make the first move. He stepped to the side, deflecting the blow so that it veered slightly, and snapped his shinai to the shorter boy's head.

The younger boy, not expecting the quick counterattack, was slow to bring up his second shinai. The referees both brought their white flags up, signaling a point to Coper.

Kazuto looked at the older boy in disbelief as they slid back to their starting positions. He had not expected such stiff competition from Coper of all people. Coper smirked at him, making Kazuto lose his cool.

The young prodigy leapt forward with a roar of anger, launching into an impressive barrage of hazardous swings, alternating between his two shinai. He had all but forgotten his own thoughts on angry people; the fact that they become extremely predictable. Coper's smirk grew wider, as he easily deflected every blow, reading Kazuto's movements as if he was reading a book. A very violent book, that is.

After blocking a 'tsuki' (throat) strike, Coper flicked his shinai around, twisting the shinai in Kazuto's right hand out of his grasp and into the air. Then he brought his bamboo sword to meet the heavy left-handed strike, and in the same motion brought it back down onto Kazuto's head.

The referees both waved their white flag again, signifying the second and final point of the game as the crowd erupted into cheers. Kazuto had lost.

 _ **And the returning champion has been defeated! Coper has become the new victor of the World Kendo Championship!**_

The younger teenager fell to his knees, staring at the ground uncomprehendingly. _'What the hell happened? I was so sure I was going to win!'_ he thought despairingly, mentally berating himself until someone tapped his shoulder.

Coper offered his hand to Kazuto, with a winning smile. The 'young prodigy' glared at him darkly, before standing up himself and making his way towards the awards platform, head hung in disappointment. The older boy stood there, staring at the back of Kazuto's head as the boy made his way towards the platform, before shaking his head and walking there himself.

* * *

The German national anthem played after a rather old-looking man (a sensei?) hung a gold medal over Coper's neck and he stepped onto his well-deserved place on the first-place platform. Kazuto soon followed after; receiving his silver medal and stepping onto the second-place platform. An American had gotten third place, receiving his respective bronze medal for his efforts.

The announcer spoke again, in his usual annoying voice.

 _ **In addition to the medals and prize money, the finalists will also receive a beta-key to the highly anticipated game: Sword Art Online! The creator of the game sends his regards and congratulations for being skilled swordsmen in real life!**_

A well-dressed gentleman walked up to the platform and handed Coper and Kazuto a piece of paper. The black-haired teenager quickly skimmed over the paper. The plain-looking paper contained instructions on how to redeem their beta-key as well as a voucher for a free NerveGear. He exchanged a glance with Coper before bowing to the man in thanks.

The crowd applauded the three medalists as the award ceremony came to a conclusion. Kazuto then walked out of the spacious dojo, lost in thought. _'NerveGear? I remember reading an article on that computer magazine that Oba-san gives me.'_ Kazuto's mood lifted a little while he thought about the possibilities that NerveGear presented.

He didn't even realize that he was in the middle of a crowd of people outside of Nihon Budokan until someone jumped on his back, giggling.

"Onii-chan! Good job today! You were amazing out there!" she cheered. Midori stood off to the side, smiling at the two.

"Good job, Kazuto."

"Thanks, I guess... I should have won. I lost my cool but I'll win next time!" Kazuto proclaimed, determination clouding his expression before it brightened considerably. "The prizes this year are really awesome! I mean, free NerveGear and a beta-test key for the new VRMMO that's coming out? That's amazing!"

Suguha frowned a little from her spot on Kazuto's back. "Don't play it too much, Onii-chan still has to spend time with me!" she pouted.

Her cousin laughed. "Of course, Sugu. I'd never just let you be alone! Of course, you could also try the game; I'm sure that you would be really good at it since you also do kendo!"

Her brow furrowed a little in thought. Then she smiled cutely, saying, "I'll try playing it if Onii-chan likes it so much!"

"Yosh! I'll definitely get two copies of the game when it's released so that you can play too!" Kazuto said excitedly, very much liking the idea of his cousin seeing 'his' world.

"Alright you two. Let's go home now, I'll cook up a special meal to celebrate!" Midori said, amused by her children's antics.

The boy perked up at the mention of food, immediately racing off to the car, his cousin laughing from her perch on his back all the while. The mother shook her head as she ran after them, shouting at Kazuto to be safe with his precious cargo.

* * *

 **Year 2022 – August 1** **st**

Kazuto could hardly contain his excitement. It was finally August; the day that Sword Art Online's beta test began. He quickly glanced to the right, at the clock on his nightstand. 1:55 PM it read. Five more minutes until the servers came online!

The teenager stood up from his bed and quickly ran across the hall to his cousin's room. "Sugu! The servers are going up in five minutes! Is everything ready?"

He opened the door to the sight of Suguha examining the NerveGear cautiously, as if it could hurt her.

"I think I get how to use it. This technology just doesn't seem very safe to me… I mean think about it, it basically doesn't let you move while you're in game! There's so many things that could go wrong with that!" she exclaimed nervously.

"The thing's been through lots of tests and regulations. There's no way it could harm someone, relax!" Kazuto brushed off her concerns without a thought. He looked at the clock on Suguha's wall. "Oh crap, it's 2:00! Get your NerveGear on, I'll meet you in game!"

Suguha nodded before putting the dull-gray helmet on as Kazuto closed her door and ran back to his room.

After Kazuto had received a beta key for being a finalist in the World Kendo Championship, he persuaded Suguha to apply to become a beta-tester herself. She complied, albeit reluctantly, and surprisingly she got it. Out of a hundred thousand applicants, only one-thousand had been accepted. Kazuto was lucky to have gotten a beta-test key without even having to apply.

After hearing a muffled "Link Start!" from the room across from his, Kazuto quickly laid on his bed and slipped the NerveGear on. It fit snugly, and was rather comfortable for being made of plastic. A very expensive piece of plastic.

"Link Start!"

Bright colors flashed across his field of view, and on the sides of the display a few tests for his senses popped up. Touch – 100%! Hearing – 100%! Vision – 100%! Smell – 100%! Taste – 100%!

An option for language popped up, and the teenager chose Japanese naturally. The login screen came up, and his NerveGear automatically filled it in since the data was already stored on it. Afterwards, he was prompted to choose his username.

' _Ugh, I hate choosing usernames… Maybe I'll just make it a play on my real name,'_ he thought, before choosing 'Kirito' (as in **Kiri** gaya Kazu **to** ) as his alias.

Soon, he was brought to a character customization screen. _'Hmm… How should I make myself look like? I think that I want to be a little taller. And look more masculine.'_

The now self-conscious boy scrolled through all the options that he could change on his appearance. He finally decided on a different hairstyle than what he had in real life, and made his facial features look more manly. He also made himself a couple inches taller.

After finalizing his character, he was met with a «Welcome to Sword Art Online!» and spawned into the «Town of Beginnings». Kazuto looked around in awe. The game could really replicate almost everything that you see in real life!

He ran around the small square that he spawned in, marveling at the detail that was put into the virtual world.

The square had a fountain in the middle, with tons of players milling about. They probably were also taking in the sights; it was a lot to take in after all. The courtyard had a path across from the spawn point, leading to the actual town. Kazuto could see some people (presumably NPCs) on the sides of the road, as well as some shops.

The young teenager started looking around the courtyard for Suguha; she probably hadn't left the starting area without him, right? Soon enough, he spotted her slightly turned, with her back to him, sitting on the ledge of the fountain, playing with the water. The boy walked up to her and put his hands over her eyes.

"Guess who?"

"Onii-chan?"

"Correct!" he laughed, as she spun around to face him.

She hadn't changed her character at all, choosing to look like how she did in reality. That fact probably helped Kazuto find her easily.

Suguha gave her cousin a once-over before laughing.

"What's so funny?" he asked, somewhat peevishly.

"Haha… you look so MANLY! Like a stereotypical hero!" she snorted between laughs, barely able to breathe.

Kazuto sighed, face-palming. If he had known she would react like this, he wouldn't have changed his appearance.

Suguha continued to giggle, going back to full-blown laughter when she looked at him again.

"Har har har very funny. Now, let's go and try out the combat system!" Kazuto attempted to open his menu with his right hand, failing the first time. His attempts made him look extremely weird, waving his hand up and down. Suguha laughed even harder at this. After a couple tries, he finally got it to open. He studiously looked over all the information given, ignoring his still-giggling cousin.

Kirito

Level 1

HP: 100/100

Skills: One-handed Sword Lv.1

His character had nothing equipped. Kazuto wanted to change that immediately, dragging the breathless girl behind him to the NPC vendors that he had spotted down the road earlier.

The black-haired boy proceeded to buy some beginner's equipment from the salesman: «Basic Cloth Armor», «Basic Leather Pants», and two rather plain looking «Steel Sword». Suguha ended up buying the same things – bar one sword since she only used one in kendo – that he did, since she had no idea what was good.

The two headed out of town, eager to try out the combat system for the first time. They soon found themselves in a beautiful landscape of green rolling hills, with floating islands in the sky. While gaping at the view and walking aimlessly, the pair barely even realized that they found some monsters by the name «Frenzy Boar».

Kazuto pulled out his swords and got into his familiar 'ready' stance, the one that he always used before fighting in his kendo matches. Suguha did so as well. The two stood there, swords raised, watching the boar for any sudden movements, any opening to attack. After a solid minute, they heard some ill-concealed laughter coming from some bushes to their right.

"Who's there?" Kazuto exclaimed worriedly, hoping that it wasn't someone who wanted to rob them of their rather shabby equipment.

A brown-haired head popped out of the bush, with a bright grin plastered on her face. It was a girl. Her eyes were watering, and she seemed to be trying to cover her mouth to contain her laughter.

She proceeded to stand up and step completely out of the bush. She was of a rather small stature. Her eyes were filled with barely restrained mirth, along with a high degree of intelligence. Her brown hair was in a bob-cut, framing her face nicely.

She finally burst out in laughter, as Kazuto and Suguha stared at her incredulously.

"Y-you g-guys just st-stared at the boar, as if you were gonna kill it by just looking at it!" she forced out between laughs.

"Well, what are we supposed to do?" Kazuto asked, feeling rather insulted.

"You gotta get into range and attack it! It's not gonna aggro on you if you just stare at it from a distance!"

"W-what?" the boy stuttered. "Won't I be at a disadvantage? In kendo if you attack first you'll usually be at a disadvantage…"

The brunette looked at the two, smacking her hand to her forehead. "Oh, that's why you guys didn't do anything. I should have noticed the way you two were holding your swords… definitely kendo students. Well, come my padawans, I have much to teach you about this game," she cackled, rubbing her hands together.

Kazuto and Suguha gulped nervously, not liking her tone of voice near the end of her speech.

"By the way, what's your name?" Suguha questioned.

"I'm Argo. I know the most out of anyone in the game about anything and everything!" she declared proudly, with a mischievous glint in her eyes.

* * *

 **The prologue is wrapping up! Should I write more about the beta-test or just start in on the main story now? Leave me a review and let me know!**


	4. Arc 1: The Beater is Born I

**(A/N: Author's Note)**

 **I'm back with yet another update! It might be tough for me to keep up this pace, so expect delays in future chapters.**

 **P.S. I don't feel like adding many - if any - OCs to the story (Yes, I'm looking at you, Lord Destroyer).**

 **Just a reminder: I post my progress on the story on my profile! (Plus some rough dates to expect chapters by)**

 **Disclaimer: If I owned Sword Art Online, Akihiko Kayaba would have a legitimate reason for creating SAO rather than 'I don't know'**

"Speech"

' _Thoughts'_

 _Past events_

 _ **Speaker Announcement**_

* * *

 **Year 2022 – November 6** **th**

The fourteen-year old boy sat on his younger cousin's bed, going over her FullDive equipment for the last time before Sword Art Online's servers went up. His somewhat long black hair hung in front of his eyes, hindering his vision. His thirteen-year old cousin sat on the bed beside him, waiting patiently while watching him do his work. He brushed the bangs from his face before glancing at the clock on his cousin's wall, reading 12:50 PM.

The girl didn't really enjoy SAO before, as both of them being beta testers, and she opted to just log in once in a while to play with her beloved onii-chan during the one-month period. However, she promised to play the now fully-released game with Kazuto this time, as part of her birthday present to him. His birthday was a scant one month ago after all.

"Alright, Sugu. Looks like you're all set to go! Meet you in game, wait for me near the fountain in front of the spawn point!"

"Okay Onii-chan! Let's see if they changed anything from the beta!"

The beta experience was surprisingly smooth for a game that was supposedly in 'beta'. It was completely bug free, and everything seemed to be well-polished and completely – well, complete. It was as if the beta was only there to hype the release of the game even more, rather than for the usual bug squashing.

Kazuto ran back across the hallway to his room in barely contained excitement just like how he did three months prior at the start of the beta testing. He glanced at the clock on his nightstand – 12:59 PM.

He slipped the overly-familiar NerveGear on his head without any qualms, and laid down in a comfortable position on his bed.

When it was finally 1:00 PM – when the SAO servers went online – both cousins said "Link Start!" in unison.

Familiar lines of colors streaked through his vision, as the NerveGear went through all the starting-up procedures again. Soon enough, Kazuto was presented with the option to use the character that he had in beta.

' _Does this mean that my progress in beta was saved as well?'_ he questioned, pressing the 'Yes' button on the light-blue dialogue window.

Kirito spawned in the same place that he had at the start of beta (and all the other times he respawned after dying) – back in the «Town of Beginnings».

Taking in the rather familiar sight of the ornate fountain and large expanse of courtyard, he began scanning for Suguha – or rather, Leafa now.

' _Looks like I was here first this time,'_ he thought while grinning mischievously, darting over to the fountain to hide behind it.

The teenager only needed to wait a minute before he saw a cute black-haired girl spawn into town. She started scanning the courtyard anxiously, as if she was looking for someone. The girl shrugged, before walking up the fountain that he was concealed behind and sitting on the ledge.

Kirito crept up behind her until he was directly next to her. He proceeded to shove her into the fountain with a loud "Boo!".

Leafa screeched like a wounded bird as she fell into the water, causing the boy to laugh maniacally while others in the courtyard looked on with amusement. It was impossible to get hurt in town after all, so nobody thought much of it.

"Damn it, Onii-chan! Now my clothes are all wet!" the pre-teen girl practically yelled, driving her cousin into further hysterics.

"Haha, that sound you made when you fell in… pure gold!" Kirito guffawed.

Leafa pouted as she climbed out of the fountain. "Ah well, at least I can't get sick in game."

"Yeah, it's great that you can't get hurt or anything in game. Makes you feel like you can do anything!" the black-haired boy exclaimed. He then added her to his friends list, and invited her to a party.

"Ugh, I still don't get why you chose 'Leafa' as your username. Makes me think of 'Leaf', and tree leaves aren't really strong…"

"At least it's creative! Unlike yours…"

"… not a fair comparison."

The pair continued bickering lightheartedly like this as they walked out of the town, retracing the route they took in beta. The cousins stopped by a couple vendors while they were in town, opting to buy some beginner's gear («Basic Cloth Armor», «Basic Leather Pants», and «Steel Sword») with the money they were given to start with.

* * *

After a while, they found themselves at pretty much the exact same spot that they had found their first monsters; rolling green hills and floating islands as far as the eye can see. Kirito eyed a «Frenzy Boar» with a grin on his face, remembering his first lesson in fighting mobs in the beta.

" _Okay, first things first, you two need to learn how to use sword skills. Basically, you start an initial motion, and the system will recognize it. After that, the system will take over, and when that happens you're almost guaranteed to hit your target. Give it a shot!" Argo explained, sounding like a teacher._

 _After a few minutes of watching 'Kirito' and 'Leafa' ("What kind of names are those?" she had asked dubiously, earlier) wave their swords around like they were trying to do some kind of weird sword dance in front of the «Frenzy Boar» ("Are you guys trying to worship the monster with some kind of dance?"), Argo finally had enough._

" _It's seriously not that hard to get. See, watch!" the info broker said, taking Kirito's sword (to an indignant "Hey!") and performing a sorry-looking «Slant» sword skill on the boar, turning it into a shower of polygons._

 _After a couple tries, and countless lost hairs from Argo pulling her hair out of frustration, the cousins finally managed to do a couple of basic sword skills._

" _Yeah… you two owe me big time for all this information that I've given you. I'm not called «The Rat» for nothin'!"_

 _The cousins paled, trying to imagine what kind of 'payment' their 'sensei' would ask of them._

The boy was pulled out his reminiscing when he heard some yelling (that sounded fearful) and some rather-evil sounding laughs. He looked up to see two decently-equipped players chasing a newbie who seemingly had no gear equipped.

Kirito sighed, motioning for Leafa to follow him. The two took off, intending to confront the would-be robbers before they could bully the newbie.

The new player noticed them, and ran straight to Kirito, hiding behind the teen.

The guy looked like he had no idea how to play the game. Besides the things that you can change through character customization when launching the game, he had nothing equipped bar a rather shoddy looking «Iron Sword» at his waist. He had long pink ( _'What kind of guy even wants pink?'_ ) hair that was kept out of his face through the use of a red bandana tied around his head.

"P-please help me, man! These guys are tryin' to take my money and kill me!"

"Why are you even leaving the city's safe-zone without any equipment?" Kazuto groaned, cursing the new player's stupidity. Since there was PvP in the game, some players naturally ganged up on the new ones to get a head start in gear and money. Killing other players _did_ yield more in the end, if you had no sense of morality (more of helping the new players rather than stepping on them).

The pair of crooks that were chasing him caught up, standing in front of Kirito and Leafa.

The first one had short black hair and had a scimitar equipped, hanging from his waist. His arms were quite muscular, and he had a rather arrogant aura from the way he carried himself. He looked like he was in his mid-twenties, and an ugly sneer twisted his features. The second crook looked Hispanic (perhaps half?), and had long brown hair that reached his shoulders. He twirled an axe in his right hand with apparent ease. He was a couple inches shorter than his companion.

"Just let us get that newb and we won't have to kill you too, okay?" the taller man said, inching closer to Kirito.

"And what makes you so confident that you can beat us?" the former kendo champion inquired, pulling out both of his swords warily.

' _Using two swords limits me against mobs since I can't use sword skills, but against other players I'm sure that my nito kendo skills will be more of use,'_ Kirito reasoned.

"We're beta testers," the shorter, black-haired man replied proudly, puffing his chest out, acting as if being a beta tester automatically made them better than anyone else around.

"Wow. I'm so impressed. Please, don't hurt me, scary beta testers!" Leafa drawled out, sarcasm dripping from every word.

The two men apparently didn't notice her derisive tone. "Yeah, that's right. Now, let us at the guy so we don't have to hurt anyone else," the obvious ringleader demanded.

Kirito childishly flipped them the bird.

"Now you're gonna get it, punk!" the two soon-to-be orange players shouted, charging at Kirito and Leafa, swords raised.

' _Okay, I think that Leafa can easily handle the shorty. Her kendo skills should be enough to overpower him. This buff looking guy however looks a lot more experienced. It looks like -oh shit!'_ Kirito's analysis was rudely interrupted with a lightning-fast «Horizontal», as his opponent had reached him faster than he expected.

The teenager barely brought his swords up in time to parry the strike, sparks flying between them. He grunted, straining against the force behind the strike.

The black-haired boy countered quickly, utilizing his knowledge on sword skills that Argo had 'helpfully' imparted on him.

" _Every sword skill has a slight cooldown period before you can move. The more complex the skill, the longer the cool down. Try using a sword skill, and then try to move afterwards!"_

 _Kirito used his current favorite skill - «Rage Spike» against a now-helpless «Frenzy Boar» (due to the difference in levels). Sure enough, he was stuck for a brief second after the skill, unable to do anything._

 _Argo cackled, running up to him and kneeing him 'where the sun don't shine' while he was still in cooldown._

" _And here's a second lesson! Two for the price of one! I'm such a nice girl. Ya don't feel pain in the game!" Argo exclaimed, while laughing at Kirito who was curled up on the ground after her sudden assault._

While the older man began his short cooldown duration, Kirito countered quickly with a light slash with both of his swords to the man's shoulder. The now-orange player barely even flinched at the 'wound', making Kirito feel better about 'hurting' – rather, the lack of pain – another player.

The brown-haired man growled, glancing to see how his partner-in-crime was doing after their little bout. Surprisingly, Leafa had already disarmed him and the newbie was now pinning him down in a wrestler's hold.

Kirito noticed his moment of distraction, making full use of the opportunity presented. He quickly slashed at the man's throat, turning him into a spectacular shower of bright blue polygons.

Leafa and the pink-haired man looked up at the shattering sound, realizing that Kirito had dispatched his opponent quite thoroughly.

The man being restrained looked at Kirito fearfully as he walked up.

"You're not gonna kill me too, are you?"

"Of course not. Now, leave. Don't let us catch you beating up newbies again."

"I won't forget about you, Kirito. You'll regret messing with me and my friend."

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say. Now scram!"

The half-Hispanic man got up, dusted the imaginary dirt off of his pants, and ran back towards the «Town of Beginnings», presumably to wait for his friend to respawn.

"Onii-chan! You didn't have to kill the other guy! Now Onii-chan is permanently an orange… wait how come your cursor didn't turn orange?" she asked confusedly, gesturing towards the green upside-down pyramid floating over Kirito's head.

"He attacked first, so I was acting in self-defense. I guess that the game differentiates things like that so I won't have to deal with being an orange player," the boy mused, satisfied with his theory.

"Hey guys, thanks for helping me out there. My name's Klein!" the pink-haired newbie said, bowing to the two.

"No problem, I don't like seeing experienced players taking advantage of new ones. They should be helping, not hurting. My name's Kirito, and this is my cousin, Leafa!"

Leafa waved shyly when Kirito introduced her. Klein looked at Leafa with a strange expression on his face, seemingly just noticing that she was a girl.

"H-h-hi! M-my name's K-Klein, I'm t-twenty-two and single –" he stuttered while bowing and extending his hand, before being interrupted by a knee to the groin from Kirito. Klein rolled around on the ground, seemingly in pain, clutching his family jewels.

"That's enough of that, you can't feel pain, dummy," Kirito deadpanned, as Klein suddenly stood up.

"Oh, didn't know that."

"I'm thirteen-years old, for your information, Mister Klein. Unless if you're a lolicon (and want to get arrested for being a pedophile), I don't think you want to be messing around with me! Besides, I already have my eyes set on someone!" Leafa winked, destroying Klein's hopes and dreams with the first words she had said to him.

"Wait, you have your eyes 'set on someone'? Tell me who, I need to approve of him first!" Kirito exclaimed suddenly, feeling overprotective of his cousin.

"That's for me to know and you to find out!" the young girl sang, giggling a little with her cheeks tinted red.

"Ahhh whatever I'll find out later. But for now, we need to give Klein here a crash course on the basics of this game! I don't wanna be saving his ass again," the teenager said.

"Wait, how do you guys know so much? Are you two beta testers?" the bandana-wearer questioned.

"Yep! Plus, we learned a lot from someone…" Leafa trailed off, shivering at the memories.

"On that happy note, let's get started!" Kirito said, eager to get this training over with.

* * *

After a few hours of teaching, training, and levelling, the trio sat down on the green rolling hills. The sun was now setting in-game; pink and orange tinting the sky, making for a spectacular sunset over the gentle rolling green hills.

Leafa put her head on Kirito's shoulder as Klein looked on jealously. She really loved sunsets like this, more specifically when she watched them with her Onii-chan.

"Well, I have pizza coming at 5:30, so I gotta go now. I'll leave you two lovebirds alone now," Klein said with a grin, sending the 'couple' a friend request before manipulating his menu to find the log out button.

Leafa and Kirito blushed at being called a couple again as they accepted the friend request.

"Uhhh noob question, but how do I log out?"

Kirito sighed, slightly fed up with the 'noob questions' he had endured through the majority of the afternoon.

"It's right… wait what? Where is it?" he said in shock, after opening his own menu.

Leafa also attempted to find the log out button to no avail. "I don't see it either, there's only a grayed out button where it usually is…"

Kirito's mind kicked into overdrive, trying to figure out what the hell was happening.

' _What did I read about Akihiko Kayaba? He's a genius, he would never let a bug like this through into the real game. Hell, there weren't even any bugs in the_ _ **beta**_ _of all things. Maybe… it was intended? Perhaps the only way to log out is to die in game. In that case, I just helped that crook out a few hours ago,'_ he thought, trying to draw some logical conclusions.

"Have you tried contacting some GMs? I'm sure they could fix it," Leafa inquired of Klein.

"Yeah, none of them have responded. Damn it, I'm going to miss my pizza delivery!" he groaned pitifully, as if pizza was the most pressing matter in the current situation.

Suddenly, a blue light surrounded each of the players on the hills.

"What's going on?" Klein asked, slightly panicked.

"This looks like when I use a teleport crystal… But a mass teleport?" Kirito said, as they were flung into a huge crowd of players in the starting courtyard of the «Town of Beginnings».

The three friends reoriented themselves after their sudden teleport, extremely confused.

"What's happening? Why does it seem like every single player is in the courtyard?" Klein asked again, his barrage of questions seemingly endless.

"We don't know any more than you about this…" Leafa said, slightly annoyed by the large volume of questions that the cousins were bombarded by.

After a few seconds, red hexagons started tiling over the sky above them, all of them having the words 'System Announcement'.

"Well, looks like our questions will be answered now," Kirito said apprehensively, not liking where this was going.

Soon, the entirety of the twilight sky was filled with red, and a viscous crimson liquid dripped from the ceiling.

"Is that blood?" was the question on the lips of many players.

The blood-like substance congealed, forming a hooded figure in a dark red cloak. None of its facial features could be seen; darkness shrouded the inside of the hood. It raised its hands as if it was about to speak, silencing the mass of players below it.

 _ **Players, welcome to my world. My name is Akihiko Kayaba, the creator of this wonderful world that you all have enjoyed so far. As a thank-you gift for being a part of this world, I have given you all something. Look inside your inventory to see what it is!**_

Kirito, Leafa, and Klein looked in their inventories simultaneously.

"A «Hand Mirror»…?" the three exchanged glances. Suddenly, all of the mirrors disappeared from the player's hands, and everyone gathered in the courtyard glowed brightly, making it impossible to see anything.

After a few seconds, the glow died down, leaving players disoriented yet again.

"Where are you guys? Klein? Leafa?" Kirito said, looking around for his companions.

Leafa spotted him before he saw her. She ran up to him. "Onii-chan…? Why do you look like how you do in real life?"

The young teenager glanced down at his body confusedly. "I do? That means that… that's Klein?!" he exclaimed, pointing at a player who had his back turned to them.

Upon hearing his name, Klein turned around, spotting Leafa. "Oh hey, Leafa. Who's the guy next to you?"

"I'm Kirito!"

"You're Kirito?"

"You look like this in real life, Klein?"

Klein's physique hadn't really changed from the «Hand Mirror». He was still on the tall side. His facial features were a little sturdier now, and he had facial hair. His hair was considerably shorter, now a dark orange.

"How come Leafa didn't change? And for that matter, how the hell did he get our real-life appearances in the first place?"

"Well, I felt confident in my own appearance – unlike some people I know – so I decided to make my character look just like me!" Suguha jabbed at her two male companions good-naturedly.

"As for getting our body types and appearances… do you remember doing the calibration for the NerveGear? Where you had to pat yourself down and other stuff? Well, I bet that's how it happened," Kirito explained.

 _ **Now, I do realize that you all are shocked by the changes in your character. I just thought it would be better to play this game in your own body.**_

The crowd quieted down, listening attentively to the creator of the game.

 _ **Now, I'm sure that a lot of you have noticed that the «Log Out» button has disappeared from the main menu. This is not a bug, I repeat, this is not a bug. It as an intended feature of «Sword Art Online».**_

The population of players in the courtyard was deathly silent.

 _ **Until you clear the game, you will not be able to log out. Also, attempting to remove the NerveGear in any way is strictly forbidden. If that happens, the NerveGear will fry your brain. In addition, if you die in game, you die in real life.**_

 _ **Despite warnings, some family members and friend have attempted to remove the NerveGear from players. 282 deaths have happened from the start of the game, due to these interferences and also from dying in game.**_

Kirito's blood ran cold, his face paling visibly. He had killed someone in real life. He was a murderer.

"Nonononononononono" he muttered under his breath like a mantra, while inching away from his friends, towards the edge of the courtyard.

"Why would Kayaba do such a thing?" Klein asked. Upon hearing no response from Kirito, who seemed to know the most, he turned to face him.

"Kiri- Wait where did he go?"

"Wait, Onii-chan's gone?" Leafa said shakily, traumatized by the turn of events.

The Game Master continued speaking.

 _ **You might ask, "Why? Why is he doing this? Is this a terrorist attack?" Well, that's wrong. My only purpose was to create and watch a world, watch humanity adapt to the direst of circumstances.**_

 _ **Now, this concludes the official tutorial of «Sword Art Online». I wish you all the best of luck!**_

By the end of the speech, Kirito was already at the entrance of the courtyard, which lead to town. He bolted away from the assembly of now-distraught players, distancing himself from the «Town of Beginnings».

' _I'm a murderer. I don't deserve to live in comfort. I'll clear the game my own way, and I_ _ **will**_ _save the rest of the players, no matter the cost,"_ he resolved tearfully, running towards a certain hut on the edge of the forest.

* * *

 **Stupid, arrogant Kirito. You can't do it all on your own y'know? How could you leave your cousin all alone with the sexual predator that is Klein? (jkjk)  
**

 **We're finally onto the main story! Leave me a review and tell me what you thought! Ja ne!**


	5. Arc 1: The Beater is Born II

**(A/N: Author's Note)**

 **Sorry for the delay! Between prior commitments, homework, and just a lack of motivation (and a bad case of writer's block), I just couldn't find neither the time nor inspiration to write this chapter… I hope the lack thereof didn't affect the quality of the chapter.**

 **This week, expect no updates until the weekend… I have three tests and a project due so no time at all for anything else.  
**

 **Disclaimer: If I owned Sword Art Online, the villains wouldn't be such a joke. (Rape-y Sugou? Really?)**

"Speech"

"Messaging"

' _Thoughts'_

 _Past events_

 _ **Speaker Announcement**_

* * *

 **Year 2022 – November 6** **th** **– Floor 1**

The distraught fourteen-year old boy ran on and on heedlessly, completely ignoring any monsters that he came across, opting to just run past them until he lost aggro.

' _W-why? I just wanted to play a game, and be strong in it. Now, I've killed someone over a stupid game! That player probably has family that are now mourning over his lost life,'_ he thought as bile rose up in his throat. He stopped running for a bit, fighting the urge to throw up.

After calming himself down, Kirito continued on his path to what he knew as a hard but extremely rewarding quest from his beta experience.

It was the «Secret Medicine of the Forest» quest, which could be found in a hut on the edge of a certain forest. It was extremely hard to get the required item to drop; the monsters also being ridiculously tough, so players generally skipped it.

However, the quest reward was something that was extremely valuable at the early stages of the game; an «Anneal Blade». The blade was rather plain-looking, but in reality it was the best sword you could get on the first floor. This was due to the fact that it could be upgraded to +8, aka it could be upgraded eight times; improving its sharpness, durability, etc. Kirito himself had used «Anneal Blade» all the way through the third floor in the beta-test.

After a little while more of running and mentally beating himself up, Kirito finally spotted a somewhat familiar small hut on the edge of the forest. It sat there on its lonesome, with no other houses in sight. There was moss growing on the roof, and vines were climbing up the side of its walls. The rather musty front door was slightly ajar, and a child's coughing could be heard from the inside.

The teenage player cautiously opened the door to the small home. The interior was cozy, a small fire place with a black kettle hung over it illuminated the small kitchen that the front door opened up to. An older woman sat at the kitchen table at the center of the room. She had long brown hair, and was clothed in a light blue patchwork dress. She looked as if she was a hundred years old due to the weary expression on her face.

Kirito cautiously walked towards the NPC, recognizing her but not liking how lifelike her facial expressions were. She stood up, sensing the presence of a player in her home.

"Hello traveler. I would offer you some food but sadly I don't have any food at the moment. Would a glass of water suffice?" she said, extending a cup full of water.

The boy accepted the cup, remembering that this was the way to trigger the quest. Sure enough, coughing could be heard through a door in the side of the kitchen and a golden exclamation mark appeared, floating above the woman's head.

"What troubles you?" he asked tentatively, recalling the key words for talking to a quest-giving NPC.

The woman sighed sadly, before telling him about a medicine – that would cure her daughter – that could only be made from a certain ingredient. Kirito gathered that the quest was indeed the same as it was in beta; it was a typical 'hunt monsters for a rare quest-item drop' quest. He quickly accepted the quest, leaving the lonely cabin and heading deep into the forest.

After about ten minutes of walking aimlessly through the dense population of deciduous trees, he finally happened upon his quarry; a group of «Little Nepenthes». They were spread out throughout the small clearing in the forest, totaling to about six of them. There probably were more in the trees beyond the clearing as well.

Kirito charged towards a «Little Nepenthes» with a single «Iron Sword» in hand, opening up the battle with a «Rage Spike».

* * *

The solo player cleared the entire area of «Little Nepenthes» within thirty minutes, fueled by his rage for Kayaba and frustration. He wasn't frustrated about the lack of the quest drop, no, he was frustrated with himself. Why didn't he just let the man live? He was probably a nice guy in real life, but Kirito had taken the gift of life from him quite abruptly.

The lone teenager was pulled from his inner turmoil when he heard someone approach him from behind. Kirito whirled around, blade drawn, ready to confront the potential-killer. His eyes narrowed, disliking who he saw.

It was Coper, the previous winner of the World Kendo Championships, and perhaps Kirito's biggest rival. Coper's eyes widened in surprise upon seeing his fellow finalist.

"Oh, hey Kazuto. Looks like you got stuck in this game too. I take it that you're here for the «Secret Medicine of the Forest» quest as well?"

"Please don't call me that here, my in-game name is Kirito. Yes, I am doing the quest for the «Anneal Blade», I guess that you learned of it through the beta-test?" Kirito said, annoyed by the fact that his rival was here, almost as if he was rubbing his recent victory in his face. "Also, aren't you German? How are you even playing Sword Art Online?"

"Ok _Kirito_ , you can call me Coper since it's my username as well. As for your question, my parents moved to Japan for their jobs right before the WKC, so now I can play «Sword Art Online» unfortunately..." he trailed off, looking a little regretful. His face brightened up again, his eyes glinting. "Do you wanna work together to do this quest? If we kill «Little Nepenthes» enough times, one with a flower is bound to spawn sooner or later. I'll even let you get the first one!" the other teen suggested in seemingly good cheer, oblivious to the dark looks he was receiving.

The black-haired solo player took a moment to carefully consider the offer.

"Fine," he said begrudgingly, as working together would only speed things up in the end.

* * *

As expected of the champion and a beta tester, Coper was extremely skilled with his sword. He dispatched monster after monster with apparent ease; Kirito couldn't even keep up with his pace.

After several cycles of killing monsters and waiting for their respawns over the next hour, not a single flower-bearing «Little Nepenthes» was seen. Kirito was sorely tempted to just call it a day and head back to town; working with his rival was not a favorable situation after all.

Just as Kirito opened his mouth to say that he was leaving, he noticed a monster spawn on the edge of the small forest clearing. The «Little Nepenthes» had a flower on its head!

"Alright! Finally, a flower!" Kirito cheered, thankful for his so-called 'good luck'.

"Sorry, but that one's mine," Coper called out suddenly, revealing his true colors. The brown-haired player dashed towards the monster next to the one with the flower. Kirito's eyes widened; the «Little Nepenthes» that Coper was running towards had a «Seed» sprouting from its head.

What made fighting «Little Nepenthes» extremely dangerous, besides their rather annoying fortitude, was the «Seed». If it was destroyed, all «Little Nepenthes» in the area swarmed the nearest player, usually resulting in death if the player wasn't strong enough.

The traitor destroyed the «Seed» in one swing with viper-like precision. He proceeded to run off into the woods to hide, presumably with his «Hide» skill, abandoning Kirito to face the oncoming onslaught of monsters.

' _That idiot. Why would he even attempt to Monster PK me over a quest on the FIRST FLOOR? Selfish bastard,'_ the lone player in the forest clearing thought, before running away as well.

However, after running for a short ten meters, Kirito realized that none of the monsters were following him.

' _What the… they must've gone after Coper! He probably hid nearby to try and get the flower after I died,'_ the teen reasoned, turning back to see how his rival was faring. He could hear fighting from the direction that Coper had run.

Kirito sighed, trying to decide whether to save Coper's sorry ass or not. In the end his morals won out, running to help his former 'companion'.

The solo player's heart dropped upon arriving on the scene. Coper was surrounded by around twenty «Little Nepenthes», and was fighting for dear life. Kirito joined the fight with a shout.

' _I'm not gonna let anyone die if I can help it!'_ he thought as he charged into battle, swiftly killing a monster with a «Vorpal Strike».

He fought endlessly, slaying what felt like hundreds of the hideous monsters trying to get to Coper, whose health seemed to be extremely low.

The sound of glass-like shattering filled his ears, signifying a player's death. He looked past the «Little Nepenthes» he was fighting only to see Coper's body turn into a smattering of polygons. His brain was probably being fried right now.

Kirito poured even more effort into killing the monsters at this, completely furious that another player had died in front of him.

' _Stupid game, stupid Coper, stupid me. Why does it have to be like this?'_

After thirty minutes, a despondent Kirito walked to where he saw Coper die. He stuck a plain «Iron Sword» in the ground and laid a «Little Nepenthes' Ovule» next to it, forming a makeshift grave. Two had dropped from the huge mob of monsters that Kirito had to kill while trying to save Coper.

"Here's your damn flower you wanted so badly. I hope it was worth it," Kirito said bitterly to his late rival before turning around to go and turn in his quest.

* * *

Kirito walked up to the familiar small hut, dragging his feet the whole way. The depressed boy opened the door, and was greeted by the still-eerily-human NPC woman.

She happily took the proffered flower, tossing it into the kettle that hung over the fireplace. The lines of worry on her face melted away as she hummed and stirred the medicine. After the brunette had finished mixing the medicine, she turned around to Kirito to tell him the story of her daughter.

However, one difference in the sob story that the NPC was telling shook Kirito to his core. In the beta, it was just that – a story. The 'sick' daughter was never revealed, making the quest rather bland and lacking in emotion.

The boy went slack-jawed as he watched the woman glide across the kitchen towards a door that lead to what he assumed was off-limits for players. She opened the door, revealing a young girl lying on a bed. She was pale and frail; it looked like even the slightest of breezes would kill her.

The brunette NPC sat down at the side of the bed, humming softly while stirring the newly-made medicine in the cup that she had in her hand. The woman helped her daughter sit up, as the sickly girl drank the medicine.

The girl's complexion turned a healthy pink almost immediately upon downing the probably foul-tasting concoction. The mother rejoiced upon seeing this, thanked Kirito profusely, and tried to hand him the quest reward that so much had been sacrificed for; the «Anneal Blade».

However, Kirito was kneeling on the floor, bawling his eyes out at the scene. Seeing the interaction reminded him of when he took care of Suguha when she was sick before.

' _How could I be so stupid? I just completely up and ditched my cousin_ _ **in the middle of a death game**_ **.** _Please be safe, I don't know what I'd do if you died,_ ' he prayed while crying, his forehead touching the dusty floor.

Between watching his rival die, killing someone, and realizing that he ditched Suguha (and the small matter of the death game), Kirito was completely and utterly drained emotionally. Without even realizing it, he drifted off to a fitful slumber, sprawled out on the floor of the NPC's house. The woman remained standing with the blade in her hand, waiting for Kirito to take it.

* * *

Leafa sighed in annoyance, observing yet another random outburst of bickering between Klein and his buddies.

They were currently situated near the outskirts of

"Alright guys, break it up. Nobody wants to know how many girlfriends you've had in the past. Or in Klein's case, lack thereof," she huffed.

"Oi!" said person interjected.

"Let's just focus on levelling, and then go back to town. Okay?"

"Hey, I'm supposed to be the 'guild' leader here, not you Leafa!" Klein said, trying to assert control over his rowdy friends.

As she watched Klein rein in the group to do some more levelling, she couldn't help but think about the rather hectic day she had.

" _Wait, Onii-chan's gone?" the girl said, on the verge of tears. She didn't ask for any of this! She just wanted to make her Onii-chan happy for his birthday!_

 _Leafa shakily cursed Akihiko Kayaba under her breath for the umpteenth time since the end of the 'tutorial' while she typed a PM to Kirito with trembling fingers. As if anyone could call it that._

" _I-I t-think I'm going t-to stay in the «Town of Beginnings»," she said shakily to the redhead next to her, chin quivering from the effort of holding back tears. "I don't wanna die. I hope Onii-chan is okay right now."_

" _I'm sure Kirito will be fine. He's a beta tester," Klein reassured the emotionally-fragile girl. "I'm sure he'll come back soon, just you wait."_

 _Leafa sniffled, still not coming to terms with what had just happened, as she sent yet another PM to Kirito._

" _How about you come join me and my friends? They're all nice people, and I know them in real-life… We lined up for hours to buy this game," Klein suggested hopefully, trying to find a way to help the emotionally unstable pre-teen._

" _I guess that would be better than doing nothing in the «Town of Beginnings». Why not?" Leafa agreed hesitantly, before shooting Kirito another PM._

 _Klein then sent messages to all his friends, presumably setting a meeting point._

" _Alright, we'll meet my friends on the outskirts of town. Once we've properly introduced, let's go slay some monsters!" Klein said excitedly, trying to bring Leafa out of her bout of depression._

" _Okay, I guess…" she replied reluctantly, not liking the idea of risking her life in fighting monsters._

Leafa was brought out of her musing by the sound of excited shouting from the group of men (who acted more like boys in her opinion) that were killing a few unfortunate «Dire Wolf» packs that had crossed their path in the densely packed forest they were in. It seemed that a sword had dropped for someone, and everyone wanted to check it out. She shook her head amusedly.

' _Boys will be boys.'_

After a few more hours of fighting random monster encounters and boisterous squabbling between the so-called men of the group (and discreet searching for Kirito), Leafa felt like she was at the end of her rope.

"Klein, can we just go back to town now, it's getting kind of late and I'm tired," she yawned, hoping to put on a convincing argument.

"Alright, we've been at it for a while now I guess. Bring it in boys, we're going back!"

With that, the motely group of six men and a pre-teen girl trudged back through the «Dire Wolf»-infested overgrown forest, over the rolling hills filled with «Frenzy Boars», and back to the aptly-named «Town of Beginnings».

They all checked in to their respective inn rooms and went to sleep after a rather loud meal in the dining area of the large inn.

Leafa dropped her indifferent façade as soon as she entered her small inn room. The room was of average quality and extremely plain. It sported a twin-size bed with a matching nightstand right next to it. A small window was set on the wall above the bed, and a door leading to the toilet sat opposite to it. The walls were bare, showing just the plain oak planks that the inn was made of.

She curled up on her bed, tears streaking out of the corners of her brown eyes, the small droplets hitting the soft pillow that she laid her head on. Silent sobs wracked her small body as she lay there, feeling extremely alone in the virtual world.

' _Where are you, Onii-chan? Please be safe,'_ she thought, as she silently cried herself to sleep.

* * *

Light streamed through the windows of the small cottage, irritating the slumbering form of a player. He attempted to roll over, turning his face away from the sunlight. His face hit the leg of a chair, causing him to yelp in surprise. The teen then sat up, rubbing his eyes groggily. Something felt extremely uncomfortable under him; something lumpy pressed into his backside. He stood up, and realized that he had been sitting on someone's foot.

Kirito took in his surroundings through bleary eyes. _'Wait… where am I? Am I at home?'_

He turned to look at the person whose foot he was sitting on, about to apologize. He did a double-take, realizing it was a woman who he didn't recognize. For some reason, she was standing up and held out a familiar-looking sword, as if he was supposed to take it. Suddenly, everything from the previous day came crashing down back into his memory.

' _Crap, I'm stuck in_ « _Sword Art Online_ » _with Sugu – er Leafa. Wait… where is she? Is she okay?'_

He suddenly remembered that she was on his «Friends List», mentally smacking himself for forgetting something so obvious. Kirito frantically manipulated his system menu, going to his «Friends List», before sighing in relief; Leafa still had a green dot next to her name, indicating that she was logged in and alive. He went to the PM function, intending to send her a quick message. However, the solo-player realized that she had sent tens of rather frantic messages to him in the past day. He quickly read through a couple.

"Where'd you go, Onii-chan?"

"Please respond soon, I'm worried about Onii-chan."

"I see that Onii-chan is still alive, please come back soon."

"Why isn't Onii-chan replying?"

"Well, since I can't seem to find Onii-chan, I'll be joining Klein's group of friends temporarily. We're based in the «Town of Beginnings», so you know where to find me."

' _Leafa is soooo gonna beat me up for leaving her behind and not responding to messages when I find her,'_ Kirito groaned, thinking like the drama queen he was.

He gathered his thoughts once again, and prepared to leave the small house that he had unwittingly been an overnight visitor of. However, when he was about to walk out the door, the human-like NPC woman followed him to the door, still holding out the sword that she offered him the previous night.

' _Wait, why is she following me?'_ he thought, still not completely remembering everything from the previous day.

The dumb (in more ways than one) teenager stared blankly at the NPC, trying to think of the cause of this abnormal behavior, still not realizing that she was offering him the coveted «Anneal Blade». He decided to try some key words that would prompt the NPC to talk.

"Hello, do you need something?" he inquired of the woman.

She seemingly deadpanned, adding to the creepy human-like behavior that she exhibited, before getting a rather mischievous twinkle to her eyes. She then launched into the sob-story that Kirito had heard many times before, not letting him take the sword (even when he remembered everything now) until she was done.

Kirito stared at the sword in disbelief, and then back at the woman again, not liking the _sassy_ nature that the NPC had showed, before taking the proffered «Anneal Blade» finally.

' _Did she just do what I think she did? Also, was that why she was standing next to me the whole time I was in the cabin? I made her hold the sword for a solid ten hours… I feel bad, even if she's_ _ **just**_ _an NPC,'_ he thought, trying to reassure himself of the NPC-ness of the woman.

The solo-player then proceeded to walk as quickly as he could away from the small cabin on the edge of the forest, away from the weird NPC, heading straight back to the «Town of Beginnings» to be reunited with his cousin again.

* * *

 **Kirito/Leafa reunion! Should Kirito join up with Klein's gang?  
**

 **Arggh I felt like that chapter was really forced and poorly written (sorry). I'll be better next time, I promise! Leave me a review and let me know what YOU thought?**


	6. Arc 1: The Beater is Born III

**(A/N: Author's Note)**

 **I'm having trouble with inspiration and also motivation to write… Sorry for not having consistent uploads but I just can't right now.**

 **On the plus side, spring break is coming up next week so maybe I'll have a lot of updates over that week.**

 **P.S. We've hit the 100-follower mark (and 5k views)! I'm quite proud that in less than a month, my story has garnered this much attention. More frequent reviews to tell me how I'm doing would help though…**

 **Disclaimer: If I owned Sword Art Online, there would be less harem and more fighting. Gotta say, those animations are pretty nice.  
**

"Speech"

"Messaging"

' _Thoughts'_

 _Past events_

 _ **Speaker Announcement**_

* * *

 **Year 2022 – October 4** **th** **– Floor 1**

"Switch!" the teenage boy called out as he blocked a rather vicious hack with his «Anneal Blade», the blow courtesy of the «Ruin Kobold Trooper» that he currently was engaged in combat with. A younger girl heard his call over the din of battle, quickly disengaging the monster she was fighting. She leapt in, catching the boy's opponent with a «Slant», straight through the neck. The «Ruin Kobold Trooper» froze and then promptly shattered into thousands of digital polygons.

Meanwhile, the former of the duo engaged the other monster that she had been fighting, making quick work of it. He dispatched it with a skillfully executed «Horizontal» that swept through the waist of the monster.

Leafa glanced around at her surroundings, scanning for any immediate danger from monsters that they may have missed. Seeing none, she sheathed her sword at her side, while her cousin flicked his blade to the side, as if he was getting the blood off it, flourishing it before putting it on his back sheath.

"Looks like that was the last of them," Leafa said, still watching their surroundings for anything. It couldn't hurt to be over-cautious in a 'death game', as others have named the blasted game that they were stuck in.

"Yeah," Kirito agreed hesitantly, still looking around warily. "Looks like we're getting the hang of fighting as a party."

"Yup!" the more sensible of the pair – at least, she liked to think she was – said, popping the 'p'. "Let's get out of this dungeon, we've been in here long enough. I'm already level eight, and I bet you're around the same as me."

"I'm level ten," he shot back rather haughtily, puffing his chest out for dramatic effect. Leafa started giggling uncontrollably at the show that her cousin was putting on. The arrogant boy sighed, not wanting to deal with another one of her endless laughing fits.

"Alright, alright. Let's get outta here and get back to our inn."

The pair started walking out of the dungeon, retracing their steps. The dungeon was essentially a series of caverns in the side of the mountain that could be visible from the «Town of Beginnings». The interior was not much to look at; stone surrounded them on all sides, with the occasional ledge above them. It was rather dark inside, shadows shifted ominously in corners that weren't lit by the torches on the walls. A few skulls (Kobold?) occasionally lined the floor, adding to the creepy effect.

They had to stop and kill a couple mobs that had respawned during their prolonged jaunt through the labyrinth. Originally, they were just scouting out the area ahead, trying to find the boss room. Their survey 'mission' was quickly abandoned in favor of levelling; the cousins wanted to stay ahead of the pack after all to ensure their chances of survival.

As they strolled along, Leafa couldn't help but let her mind wander to the events of the past month. It had been a whole month in «Sword Art Online», and yet no one could find the first floor's boss to advance to the next level. In the course of one short month in the death game, over two-thousand players had died. Thankfully, Kirito hadn't died even though he ran off by himself for a while on the first day. His return was a rather tearful ordeal.

 _A rather sheepish and relieved looking Kirito locked eyes with Leafa, who was in the middle of descending the stairs from the upper floor of the inn that she and Klein's group inhabited. It was morning, and the girl seemed to have just woken up, if her hair was any indication. She looked at the boy seated at a table sleepily before her eyes widened, relief evident in her eyes. The younger cousin slowly walked down the last couple steps, still holding the teen's gaze, a predatory glint appearing in her eyes._

 _She approached the table, whose occupant had his elbows propped up on the surface, as if she were a lioness stalking a frightened gazelle. Kirito, not noticing the change in her behavior, stood up to greet her._

 _Without warning, the lioness pounced on her prey. Leafa knocked her unsuspecting cousin down to the wood floor and straddled him._

" _Kirito! You idiot! Why did you run off like that! You worried me so much, I thought you might die!" Leafa shouted angrily, punctuating each exclamation with a haymaker to his face._

 _A message popped up in Kirito's field of vision, asking if he wanted to send his assailant to the dungeon in the middle of «The Town of Beginnings». He ignored it, allowing Leafa to continue her rampage. Thankfully, they were in town so he couldn't lose health, and there was no pain in the game. It was just rather uncomfortable, the numbness that he felt on his face._

 _After a solid five minutes of making a scene in the middle of the dining area of the inn, Leafa finally broke down, sobbing into his chest. He sat up and held her as she bawled her eyes out, taking in the curious faces of the inn's patrons._

" _Nothing to see here. Please continue whatever you were doing," he said, trying to disperse the small gathering of onlookers. They all chuckled a little before leaving the 'couple' alone._

" _Damn you, Kazuto," the girl said hoarsely after a moment, opting to call him by his real name, hugging him tightly as if he were going to disappear at any moment. "Don't do that ever again, you hear me? I'm never letting you out of my sight."_

 _Kirito chuckled, "Yeah, I realized how stupid that was. I'm here for you now."_

 _Klein and his gang had apparently heard the commotion downstairs from all the way in their rooms, choosing now to check out the situation._

 _An ill-timed wolf-whistle interrupted the cousins' rather emotional moment. The two blushed, suddenly realizing the position that they were in – Leafa practically sitting in Kirito's lap while hugging him – and leapt apart._

" _Well look at who's back, it's Kirito my dude!" Klein exclaimed after thoroughly embarrassing the pair, clapping said boy on the back as if they were old friends._

" _Yeah…" he replied sheepishly._

 _After a couple minutes of catching up, Klein dropped the question that many people of his group – including Leafa – had on the tip of their tongues. "So, you gonna stick around with us, or strike out solo again?"_

 _Kirito took a moment to consider the question. What DID he want to do now?_

" _I'm definitely not gonna leave Leafa by herself again – "_

" _Oi! Are you trying to suggest that we aren't good company?" Klein interjected, slightly peeved._

" _Well… let's just say that you're not the best. Anyways, I think that I'll just party up with only her; we should level much quicker that way," Kirito continued brusquely, ignoring the crestfallen face that Klein was putting on._

" _Oh. Alright then, take care you guys! Don't go dying on me!"_

" _Yeah, you too!" Leafa said cheerfully, clearly already over her little emotional display just a scant thirty minutes ago. Leafa's face had brightened considerably at the thought of duo-ing with her cousin._

 _With that, the twosome left the inn, heading towards the next town to start their quest of becoming the strongest. 'Survival of the fittest' seemed to apply very well to this situation after all._

Leafa was drawn from her ruminating by the sound of someone fighting in a corridor to their left, near a safe-zone that they had passed before.

"Hey, it sounds like someone's fighting over there. You wanna go see if they need help?" she asked Kirito, already guessing what his answer would be.

"No, they should be fine if they're in this dungeon. We should just mind our own business, as semi-solo players –" Kirito was suddenly cut off of his little spiel by Leafa grabbing his arm and using her shockingly high STR stats to drag him towards the sounds of sharp pointy objects clanging together.

"As I was saying, as solo players, we should just look out for ourselves…" he trailed off when they spotted the source of the commotion.

It was a solo player. He (or she?) wore a plain brown cloak that covered their facial features as well as their hair. Beneath the cloak, it seemed that they had a light armor equipped. The player was slender – not the body-type that would come to mind when one thought of a swordsman. They wielded a cheap rapier, looked like the «Iron Rapier» that could be bought from item vendors in town.

However, what caught the two cousin's eyes was the skill shown by the player. The fencer executed the rapier skill «Linear» time and time again flawlessly, thrusting forward and dashing with the skill, seemingly dancing around the unfortunate «Ruin Kobold Trooper» that they were fighting. The speed of the thrusts was amazing; the tip of the rapier moving so fast that Kirito could barely even see it as it penetrated the armor of the now-defeated monster. With the special-effect lighting that sword skills produced, he could call the visual that this swordsman painted meteor-like.

Before the Kirito and Leafa could approach the player and compliment them on their fine swordsmanship, they collapsed, apparently fainting from mental exhaustion. Alarmed, Kirito ran over to the mysterious cloaked player, catching them before they hit the ground.

"Woah, are they alright?" Leafa exclaimed worriedly as she ran to Kirito's side.

"Yeah, it seems like they're fine, looks like a bad case of exhaustion," Kirito said knowingly. "They'll be all good after a couple hours of rest."

"What should we do now though?"

"We'd better take them with us out the dungeon; it's not safe in here," the surprisingly-caring boy replied as he proceeded to pick the player up by the legs, intending to drag them to safety.

"Dummy! You're making their head drag on the ground! Here, I'll help you," Leafa chided, lifting the fencer's head off the ground. The two began to cart the unconscious body out of the dungeon, encountering little difficulty, as the rapier-wielder had wiped the surrounding area clean of monsters.

After a short five minutes, Kirito and Leafa reached the entrance of the dungeon with the fencer in tow. The two decided to lay her (they discovered that fact after her hood accidentally came off) under the large oak tree that marked the entrance, and waited for her to wake up.

* * *

The waning light from the setting sun filtered through the tree's leaves, shining onto the bodies of three players who slumbered at the roots of the great tree. A beam of light shifted as the leaves rustled in the wind, landing directly onto the eyelids of the only male in the trio.

Kirito sat up groggily, shielding his eyes with one hand from the annoying shifting light that had awoken him. He rubbed his eyes and yawned before taking in his surroundings. A girl, slightly younger than him, clad in a forest green tunic, lay curled beside him. A cloaked player lay a small distance from the pair, an unsightly sprawl across some tree roots.

He opened his menu and looked at the time. "It's 8:00 PM! We slept for seven hours!" he exclaimed rather loudly, not considering his surroundings.

Leafa stirred, flopping over onto her back. "Kazuto, why do you have to be so loud this early in the morning…" she complained, still half-asleep and completely out of it.

"Suguha, we're in a game remember? Don't call me that unless if we're alone. Also, it's not early, it's late evening! We somehow fell asleep when we were waiting for that fencer girl to wake up!" the teen whispered, checking to see if said girl had awoken before moving to stand up. He stretched as he stood, even though his virtual body couldn't get sore. It just felt natural; a habitual thing to do.

Kirito decided to walk around a little, while he waited for the two girls to wake up fully. Things didn't go quite as planned, as he tripped over a tree root just a mere two steps from where he started from, sprawling over the mysterious fencer girl.

He only had one moment to think _'Shit,'_ before the girl's chestnut eyes snapped open.

The two teenagers stared into each other's eyes for what felt like an eternity to Kirito (in reality it was only for half a second), before the girl screamed. She shoved him off abruptly, a fire burning in her beautiful eyes.

' _Wait, did I just call her eyes beautiful?'_ Kirito thought, before being bereted by the mysterious solo player.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" she said scornfully, practically yelling.

"Sorry, sorry. I tripped over a root and landed on you," Kirito said embarrassedly, trying to placate the overly-angry young woman. At this point, Leafa was fully awake, standing up and coming to her cousin's side.

"What's going on?" she questioned.

"I woke up with this pervert laying on top of me! Wait, where am I?! Are you two kidnappers?!" the fencer's questions grew more and more frantic. "What do you guys want from me?"

"Wait, he was laying ON TOP of you?" Leafa asked, turning a little green.

" _That's_ what you got from what she said?" Kirito deadpanned.

Leafa blushed slightly in embarrassment. "Er… no," she said before turning to the cloaked player. "To answer your questions, you are just outside of the first floor's dungeon. We watched you fight for a while in the dungeon, but you passed out suddenly… so we brought you outside, where it's safe!" the pre-teen explained.

"Oh," the chestnut-eyed girl replied dumbly, the fire in her eyes extinguishing, leaving them dull. "Well, thank you I guess. I'll be going back in now."

"Wait a minute," Kirito interjected. "I bet I know why you passed out. You were mentally exhausted; using a skill constantly can do that to you. Also, you should try not to 'overkill' monsters. It's unnecessary effort. If the monster is about to die, use a basic attack instead of a skill; you'll find that it's not as mentally taxing that way."

"Good advice, Kirito. Besides, how long have you been in the labyrinth? You must've been in there for a long time to pass out randomly like that," Leafa added.

"I've been in there… three or four days… is that all? I should be going to fight again," the rapier-user replied dully, turning around to trudge back into the dungeon.

"Hold on, let me get this right. You've been in there for four days? If you fight like that, you'll die!" Kirito exclaimed with fervor, unwilling to let this person run off to their death.

"Why does it matter that I'll die? It's been a month and over two-thousand people have died, without the first floor being cleared. We'll all die some way or another in this game. I just choose to die fighting," she replied drearily, not even bothering to turn around, continuing her slow march to what would be her grave.

Leafa's eyes were glassy throughout the exchange, until the last remark. At that, she broke into tears, running to the older girl and tackling her to the ground.

"Oof – hey!" came the indignant response.

"Don't go, there's still hope! We'll clear the game, you'll see!" the young pre-teen sobbed. "If not for yourself, live for me, okay?"

The cloak-clad solo player looked down at the girl hugging and crying in her chest, her formerly lifeless eyes softening at the sight. "Live for you? Why do you care so much?" she asked softly.

"Everyone needs to have hope, the will to live. Nobody should just go off and die alone! I had similar thoughts as the ones you have now, however fleeting they were. But I had someone to live for, to protect. I _will_ wake up again and be a happy family with my mom and my cousin," Leafa explained tearfully.

"Wait, you thought like that, Leafa? Never mind, now is not the time for that," Kirito began before changing his mind. "But yeah, Fencer-san, have hope! In fact, there's going to be a meeting tomorrow about the first-floor boss. You'll be there, right?"

The rapier-user grimaced slightly at the name Kirito used. "Yeah, I guess I'll be there…" she replied hesitantly, looking down at the clingy pre-teen girl that was still attached like a leech. "Uhm do you want to let me go now?"

"Oh, sorry," Leafa said, wiping away her tears, her mood considerably lighter at the turn of events. "I'm so glad that you've changed your mind."

Leafa sent the girl a quick friend request before they parted ways. Kirito attempted to do the same but was immediately shot down.

"You, mister, don't even think about it. Don't think that I've forgiven you for the stunt that you pulled earlier!" she said disdainfully.

"B-but it was an accident!" Kirito protested.

"Yeah, right. Well, see you around Leafa! And hopefully see you never, Kirito!"

"Bye!" Leafa waved cheerfully as the fencer started on the road to the nearby town of «Tolbana» with long, confident strides.

"Well, she looks like she has a spring in her step now," Kirito remarked lamely.

"Yup! Now, let's go back to our inn. It's pretty late now," his cousin affirmed.

"Wait, did we even get her name?"

"I did, since she added me as a friend," the younger girl said haughtily, putting an emphasis on 'friend'.

"Well, what is it?"

"That's for me to know and you to find out!" she sang happily, skipping down the road towards the inn in «Tolbana» they had rented out.

"Come on!" he whined childishly.

* * *

The meeting began in the afternoon of the next day. It was a nice, sunny day; perfect for the meeting to be held in the large coliseum ruins that were a couple minutes' walk from «Tolbana». Around fourty players had gathered in the stadium's seating area, all of them sitting in their own groups. Each group was obviously made of players of the same party. A duo sat near the top of the seating area, away from the rest of the players.

"Why are we sitting up here, far away from everyone else?" Leafa questioned.

"We can hear everything just fine from up here; besides, everyone seems to be in their own groups anyways," Kirito explained, not looking at all perturbed by the fact that they were the odd ones out.

A figure seemingly materialized by a marble column behind the pair, and approached them.

"Hey, Ki-bou! Leafa-chan! How've you two been?"

Kirito groaned, instantly recognizing the slightly nasally pitched voice and nicknames. The two cousins stood up to greet the newcomer.

"Hi Argo!" Leafa exclaimed. "We've been fine, what have you been up to?"

"Ah, you know, this and that. You know how it is," Argo said dismissively, before her features took on an impish look. "How has your relationship been progressing, Leafa?" she wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.

The younger girl blushed, "T-that's not important. Besides, the guy's too dense to notice anything."

Kirito, who had been tuning out the conversation in favor of scanning the arena for the fencer girl, felt mildly insulted for some reason. He didn't know why.

"Anyways, I'm here on business," «The Rat» said, turning to Kirito and jumping on his back to get his attention.

"Oi! What are you doing!" the teenage boy exclaimed.

"I'm getting your attention!" was the info broker's sarcastic response.

"Well, you have it now," Kirito shot back irritably.

"You see, the same guy's back again," she began.

"Why does he want my sword so badly…" Kirito sighed, fed up by the anonymous buyer's attempts to procure his +4 «Anneal Blade».

"He's offering forty-thousand col for it now."

Kirito let out a low whistle. "That's a lot. But this sword is too useful to me right now. Tell him no again."

"Yeah, I figured you would say that," Argo said from her perch on Kirito's back. "I told him as much but he wouldn't take no as an answer."

"Yup, now can you get off me?"

"Nope."

"Please?"

"Fine," Argo gave in, jumping off his back, landing gracefully.

"Do you always do business like this with other people too?" the dark-clothed swordsman questioned.

"Nope, only to you Ki-bou!"

Kirito sighed, shaking his head before turning his attention to a lone man standing in the center of the coliseum. "Looks like the meeting's about to start," he remarked, as he and Leafa sat down again. Argo melted away back into the shadows of the marble pillar she came from.

The man – presumably the leader of the meeting – was pretty tall. He looked to be in his early twenties, and was rather handsome. What made him stand out, however, was his light-blue hair. He wore a shiny, metallic armor, giving him the appearance of a knight.

' _Who would even waste time procuring a hair-dye this early in the game?'_ Kirito wondered to himself as he observed the man.

"Okay! Let's get this meeting started everyone!" said man began, drawing the attention of all the players gathered in the stadium.

"Thank you all for coming out today! Some people may know me, but let me introduce myself. My name is Diavel, and the job I rolled was a «Knight»!"

Some raucous laughter floated through the groups of players. Kirito merely smiled at his icebreaker, while Leafa looked on somewhat confusedly.

"There aren't jobs in this game are there?" she whispered to her cousin.

"Nope, that's the whole point of the joke," Kirito explained.

"Oh," came the sheepish response.

Diavel continued his speech. "Well, the reason why I gathered all you top players here today was to inform you of something important! Today, our party has found the stairs leading to the top-most floor of the dungeon. In other words, tomorrow we will reach it: the first floor's Boss Room!"

A collective gasp went around the seating area, before everyone started applauding.

"It took us one month to get here. But we will set an example! We will beat the boss and reach the second floor! We will show everyone else that the game is beatable! That is the duty of us, the top players, here right now!"

Cheers came out from the enraptured audience of players, who began talking excitedly.

Suddenly, a figure bounded down the stairs of the coliseum, headed towards the center, where Diavel stood. He leapt over the last few stairs, landing in front of the leader without any difficulty.

He was slightly shorter than Diavel, but looked older than him. His hair was brown and spiky, and his face seemed to be permanently contorted into a frown. Despite being somewhat short, he was well-built (perhaps a product of the game engine?).

The seemingly displeased man spoke up. "Wait a minute, Diavel." His voice was deep and gravelly, matching the look on his face. "Before we continue, there is something that I want to say, otherwise I will not join you."

The self-proclaimed knight smiled at him and gestured him to continue, saying "Well, what is it? And can we have your name as well?"

"Hmph. I am Kibaou," he proclaimed, sweeping his eyes across the rows of gathered players. His sharp, beady eyes connected with Kirito's and lingered there for longer than necessary.

"In this group, there are people who need to apologize to everyone else," he continued.

"Apologize? Who? And to whom?" Diavel asked, hands raised in a questioning manner.

"Isn't it obvious? It's the people who monopolized all the levelling areas, who ditched the newbies in the «Town of Beginnings». The beta-testers. Come out, beta-testers! I say we should make them give us their illegitimately-gained gold and items that they stockpiled for the sake of this boss fight. They can't be trusted to help us otherwise!"

Kirito looked down at his feet in shame. He had abandoned even his own cousin in the beginning in favor of going to do his own quest.

Leafa, noticing this, put a hand on his shoulder to comfort him. "Don't feel down, I know you didn't mean it. Besides, you didn't just abandon people, you even helped Klein out in learning how to play!"

The black-haired teenager looked at his cousin in thanks, before returning his attention to the center of the floor.

An extremely tall, black man had walked to the center as well, his rich baritone voice carrying over the murmurings of the crowd. He was completely bald, and stood over six feet tall. He was extremely muscular; he was a hulk of a man. He didn't look remotely Japanese, perhaps he was a foreigner, even though he spoke fluently.

"May I speak?" he asked politely to Diavel.

Diavel nodded as all the players' attention turned to the newcomer who towered over Kibaou.

"My name is Agil," he introduced himself. "So what I'm hearing, Kibaou, is that many beginners died because the beta-testers did not take care of them, and that these beta-testers should hand over their money and items to begin reparations of this wrong-doing, correct?"

"T-that's right," Kibaou affirmed nervously.

"Well, that's what you say. I don't know about money and items, but information has been freely given by the beta-testers," he said as he rifled through his inventory, pulling out a small booklet. "You guys see this? It's a Guidebook. They're freely distributed throughout many shops in the towns. I'm sure all of you have one."

Diavel took this as his cue to step in. "Yeah, everyone has received one of these. In fact, the newest version of the guide came out yesterday. It contains general information on the first boss and what to expect from it. Everyone, read up on it. For now, form parties of six so that we can have a raid group ready for tomorrow."

Kirito and Leafa looked at each other uneasily. They were only two people, and parties could have up to six members. They needed to find at least one more person to make a reasonably sized party.

Kirito scanned the area again. Everyone already seemed to be in their own parties, judging by the groups of six players that sat together. He looked across their row, not expecting anyone to be there. However, he spotted a cloaked figure sitting alone on the top row of seats.

Kirito nudged Leafa, pointing at the player. "Looks like we've found our third player."

The pair ran over to the player who had a somewhat-familiar cloak, realizing that it was the fencer girl from the day before as they drew closer.

"Hey, Fencer-san! Remember us?" Kirito said breathlessly as they approached the girl.

"Oh, it's you again," she said disdainfully, clearly not liking the nickname. She looked past Kirito and saw Leafa, her expression brightening upon seeing the young pre-teen. "Hey, Leafa!"

"Hi! We were wondering if you wanted to join our party for tomorrow's boss raid. Everyone else seems to have their own parties already, so it would be best if we formed our own party," Leafa greeted the teenage girl with a hug.

"Hmm a party with you two? Can't say that I'm particularly fond of.. _Kirito_ but sure, just for the boss fight."

"What do you even have against me?" Kirito complained as he sent her a party invite.

"Well, let's just say that you didn't make the best first impression," she replied haughtily as she accepted the invitation.

Kirito glanced at the now-two health bars below his, seeing his cousin's name and the name of the rapier-user.

' _Her name is… Asuna.'_

* * *

 **And there we go, our favorite cousins meet Asuna!  
**

 **Let me know what you thought of the chapter! Just leaving a review makes me feel more motivated to write!**

 **If there are any typos or grammar errors, sorry... it's 5 am and I haven't gone to sleep yet, I'll reread it later today and edit!**


	7. Arc 1: The Beater is Born IV

**(A/N: Author's Note)**

 **Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz**

 **Call me lazy, call me irresponsible, whatever. I have no excuses for not updating in this long.**

 **Literally have no motivation to write much. I'm gonna have to read a good story or rewatch SAO or something to get my creative juices flowing.**

 **Disclaimer: If I owned Sword Art Online, I wouldn't be going to college now, would I?**

"Speech"

"Messaging"

' _Thoughts'_

 _Past events_

 _ **Speaker Announcement**_

* * *

 **Year 2022 – October 5** **th** **– Floor 1**

 _She walked through the familiar hallways of her school towards her homeroom, head drooping in shame, as whispers floated around her._

' _Look at her! Ms. I'm So Perfect skipped the high-school entrance exam to play videogames! What a hypocrite.'_

' _What an otaku…'_

 _Asuna wanted so desperately to retort to the whispered comments but she found that she could only continue walking forwards, bearing the shame._

' _It's not my fault! I was trapped!' she screamed internally._

 _Finally, as the slightly-worn door to her classroom 1-B came into sight, she slumped her shoulders in relief; the whispers would finally stop once she went in. However, upon opening the door, the view opened up to her_ _ **mother**_ _of all people, discussing agitatedly with her homeroom teacher. The two adults paused their discussion, only to look up at her with pure, unadulterated shame in one set of eyes and pity in the other._

" _Please, let me make up for it!" Asuna pleaded to no avail, as the two adults continued to stare her down with the same looks in their eyes. The whispers that she thought would go away grew louder and louder until-_

BEEP BEEP BEEP

The chestnut-haired girl woke up with a start, her in-game alarm clock bringing her back from the realm of dreams, bringing a welcomed stop to the nightmare. Rubbing her eyes of the tears that had formed while she was unconscious, the sole inhabitant of the room took in her surroundings once more.

The walls of the rather luxurious inn she was staying in were made of logs stacked upon logs, reminiscent of log houses of western cultures that she never really bothered to learn much about besides in school. For whatever reason, there was a head of a bison mounted on the wall opposite of her bed. Another western touch, she supposed, but it was damn creepy to wake up and see the beast's soulless eyes staring back at her first thing in the morning. There were also a few 'WANTED' posters scattered around on the walls as well, with faces of people on them.

Besides the rather unnerving… wall décor, the room was quite spacious, as expected of the inn. A window framed on the wall next to her bed let unfiltered sunlight through. Judging by the amount and angle, it was still pretty early in the morning.

Asuna was brought out of her sleep-addled musings by the frantic shouts of the boy who occupied the room opposite hers.

Right. The boy was the one who provided her with the room. After his rather pathetic attempts of trying to befriend her the previous night (the cream that he gave her was extremely good, not that she would ever admit it), she had all but forced him to let her use the bath that he had mentioned off-handedly, which led to Leafa insisting that she stay the night, since Kirito had somehow rented the whole inn out.

Speaking of Kirito, he still hasn't calmed down yet, if the commotion in his room was anything to go by.

Asuna got out of her extremely comfortable western-style bed and opened her door, ready to tear the black-haired teen a new one for disturbing her peaceful morning, only to hear Leafa speaking in low tones to her brother.

The youngest of the group had neglected to close the door completely, allowing Asuna to peek in and eavesdrop without much trouble.

"Shh… don't worry, Onii-chan, it was just a dream," the girl whispered as she sat next to her brother's curled up form on his bed, stroking his hair softly.

' _Apparently someone else also had some nighttime issues,'_ Asuna mused silently.

"I saw their faces. They wouldn't go away…" the boy whimpered, curling himself up tighter.

"Everything's going to be okay, calm down," his surprisingly mature younger cousin responded, hugging him.

At this point, Asuna felt like she was intruding on something extremely private, moving away from the door, back towards her own room to get ready for the day.

' _I wonder what that was all about,'_ the teen thought absent-mindedly as she changed from her nightwear. _'He seems so aloof and coolheaded, what kind of dream would have him so worked up?'_

She shook her head, as if doing so would clear her mind of her thoughts, before finishing her morning ritual.

A scant thirty minutes later, Kirito walked down the stairs from the residential floor to the main lobby of the inn sluggishly, still not completely over his nightmare. Leafa followed behind closely, with a concerned look on her face. They were greeted by the sight of Asuna sitting at a table, ordering some breakfast.

She glanced up from her menu, looking at Kirito curiously, before brightening up considerably and waving to Leafa.

"Hey, guys! Are you all ready for today?" she exclaimed while motioning for them to take a seat at her table.

At this, Kirito snapped out of his dazed state, his mind focusing once more. He couldn't afford to be distracted today. It was time to finally take down the first boss and move one step out of this hell.

* * *

After meeting the raid group right outside of «Tolbana», the party of three followed the rest of the group towards the first floor's labyrinth. Kirito was completely out of his funk from earlier, studying the information on the first floor's boss that was given in the Guidebook written by «The Rat» as he walked.

Everything was what he remembered from the beta-test, so it was safe to assume that the guide was written using that knowledge.

"Alright guys, here's the plan…" Kirito spoke up finally, causing the two girls in his party to stop own conversing and listen attentively.

* * *

The only male in his party of three kept wracking his head for things that he might have missed when he explained his strategy while he climbed stair after stair towards the boss in the dungeon. After learning that Asuna didn't know what a simple term, «Switch», was, he was honestly quite scared for his party's safety. He'd rather not have anyone die under his leading. Even if they were being a Class A bitch to him.

Judging by the nasty looks he was getting from said girl, maybe he shouldn't refer to her like that, even in passing thought, as it seemed that he was too easy to read even if he didn't say things out loud…

Never would he have thought that the hellish training that he was put through by his grandfather would pay off. Climbing these endless flights of stairs while clearing the occasional monster posed no problem for him and Leafa. Who would've thought that physical stamina would translate to in-game stamina. Looking around him, it seemed that no-one else had thought of that small detail, as they were all dead on their feet already; their lack of physical exercise outside of the game showing through.

After a forever and a half, even by Kirito's standards, they finally reached the boss room's doors. The doors were honestly quite underwhelming for the purpose they served. There were a few interesting designs, namely just carvings of a giant Kobold-looking thing destroying a bunch of humans… how promising. The door itself was made of a roughly hewn stone, and looked extremely heavy. The torchlight from behind the group threw a shaky light onto it, making it look more ominous than it probably should've been.

It was here that the leader of the group, Diavel, walked to the front of the large forty-five player group, with some effort. It seemed that even he didn't have great physical stamina in real life either.

"Alright, I think I can say for us all that we're tired. We'll take a small break before continuing on," he said between deep breaths. At this announcement, the whole group excluding Kirito and Leafa all collapsed onto the mossy stone floor in relief.

The teenage boy left standing ogled at the sight, obviously perturbed by the lack of physical prowess in the group. He shook his head before walking towards the nearest stone column, leaning against it casually, staring at the not-so-formidable doors in thought. His cousin looked around her curiously, before settling down beside Asuna, the pair chatting up a storm before long.

After what felt like an eternity to Kirito but a blink of an eye to the resting players, Diavel stood back up.

"Okay, everyone! Let's get your game faces on!" Diavel exclaimed, causing a few people to face-palm at the unintentional (or was it?) pun that he had made. The blue-haired leader straightened his posture and his expression sharpened, causing everyone to focus.

"I'm not going to sugarcoat this. The boss **will** be hard. In fact, some of us will probably not make it," he said grimly. "I'm sure you all were expecting a hype speech but I'd rather not. A lot of the time, when you are hyped, you will tend to overlook things and act carelessly. I want all of you to stay safe, and win this with no casualties!"

Kirito nodded along, completely agreeing with the man's analysis. The teen had experienced this before, in his kendo tournaments. He had watched his opponents receive a hype-up speech from their sensei only to be completely dismantled by his flawless analysis and calculations.

At the last declaration, everyone cheered, ready to charge into battle with the first floor's boss. Upon hearing the cheers, Diavel turned around to face the massive stone doors, squaring his shoulders and pushing them open.

The boss room was extremely dim on first glance. No one could even see the boss itself. The raid group inched slowly forward, closer towards the center of the expansive tiled floor that stretched seemingly endlessly due to the poor lighting.

Leafa unconsciously moved closer to her cousin, affected by the ominous darkness of the room. The other girl in the party stood off to the side impassively, scanning the room, refusing to let the atmosphere affect her. Kirito closed his eyes, focusing on listening, trying to detect where the boss could come from. A few people around him noticed this, but resumed their searching without much of a thought.

Suddenly, the lights in the room all turned on at once, blinding all players bar one. The multi-color glass on the walls shone excessively, making it extremely painful to look at. A ground-shaking roar echoed through the gaudy room, signaling that the boss had finally shown itself.

Four green health bars appeared beneath the boss's name, «Illfang the Kobold Lord», although the vast majority of the players had yet to gather their bearings from the unexpected lightshow they had received.

Taking the opportunity, while all of its enemies were still, for the most part, incapacitated, Illfang charged into the large body of players with its shield up. All of the players hit were affected by a «Stun» debuff, further disorienting them.

Hearing the loud, thudding footsteps rapidly approaching, Leafa and Asuna instinctively jumped to the side, narrowly avoiding the shield and large feet that followed it. Kirito had been alerted as soon as he heard the initial roar, easily avoiding the rather slow charge, being the only person who wasn't blinded. He threw a quick «Slant» into the monster's flank, quickly retreating in case of some form of retaliation.

The results of the charge was disastrous for the raid group. Half of them were completely immobilized by the «Stun» debuff, while the other half were scrambling to defend themselves from the «Kobold Sentinels» that had jumped into the fray out of nowhere.

At his soft command, Kirito's party regrouped quickly, rushing towards the main group of players that had been chain-stunned in order to protect them from the incoming «Kobold Sentinels».

Asuna arrived first with her «Shooting Star» skill, plunging it deep into the back of a monster, depleting its HP by a fair amount.

"Switch!" Asuna called out, pulling her rapier out, getting ready to charge at the next enemy.

"Yaaah!" Leafa yelled with force, channeling her strength with her battle cry, just like her grandfather had taught her in kendo, performing a quick swipe at the back of the monster's neck, followed by two quick jabs at the head before it could recover. The «Kobold Sentinel» couldn't keep up with the quick switch of opponents, its movements sluggish, exploding into red polygons after the final jab from the young girl.

Kirito rushed up to the second foe who was about to swing downwards at his downed ally, beginning the required motions for a quick «Horizontal».

Having had beta experience, he knew just where and how to strike for a «Critical Hit», utilizing this knowledge to the fullest. The black-haired teen set his calculating gaze on the back of the monster's neck, moving his sword with the system-assisted skill, all but completely decapitating the unaware enemy. The head flew towards the side for a brief second before everything exploded into the familiar red polygons.

Panting slightly from the effort, Kirito turned around to see the girls he was partied with finishing off the third and final «Kobold Sentinel» in their vicinity. Take a brief respite, he scanned the overly-bright battlefield, analyzing the situation.

Everyone who had been incapacitated was now fully recovered, the blue-haired charismatic leader commanding two parties at once as they took on «Illfang the Kobold Lord». The rest of the parties regrouped and worked together to take out the 'trash' that was the «Kobold Sentinels». It seemed that everything was back in order after the chaotic mess of a start.

Turning his gaze from the rest of the players, Kirito focused back on his own party. Asuna and Leafa both looked to be in good shape still, if their HP levels and nimble movements were anything to go by.

"Oi, are you gonna just make the girls do all the work?" a certain chestnut-haired girl called out to him, interrupting his observing. "What a jerk."

"Tch," Kirito clicked his tongue, charging at the enemy that his cousin was currently engaging. "Switch!"

The girl kendoka responded immediately, jumping back to allow room for her 'Onii-chan' to engage, before heading straight over to Asuna.

Again, the enemy was confused by the sudden change in opponents, pausing for a split second. Kirito took the opportunity to deliver a quick jab into where he knew to be the 'heart', scoring yet another «Critical Hit» and disposing of the enemy instantly.

The party of three was allowed a brief few seconds of respite, having slain all the monsters in their area. They allowed themselves a brief glance at the boss' HP. It had just reached the last bar.

"Well, looks like everything is going well! I think we've got this in the bag-" Asuna started cheerfully, before getting cut off by an earth-shaking roar.

Kirito groaned. "You just had to say that, didn't you…"

«Illfang the Kobold Lord» immediately went into an invulnerable state for a few seconds, dropping its shield and sword and reaching behind its back to pull out a new two-handed sword.

"Just like the guide said," Kibaou said quite smugly, quickly dispatching another piece of 'trash'.

The teenage boy facepalmed at this, groaning into his palm, expecting the worst.

Even though the boss was invulnerable, a party of six had not retreated, instead opting to hang close by in order to strike immediately. That was their downfall.

The boss's invulnerability wore off as soon as it drew its sword. Kirito just peeked through his fingers to confirm that it was a «Talwar» just like in the beta-test. However, his hopes were for naught as it had drawn a «Nodachi», reminiscent of the age of samurais.

"GET OUT OF THERE! IT'S -" Kirito screamed, trying to convey the urgency to no avail, getting cut off by the loud shattering of three players' deaths.

«Illfang the Kobold Lord» had immediately jumped up and then slammed the ground violently, swinging the Japanese-style sword. The three unfortunate souls were stunned in place by the impact, causing them to be completely decimated by the following attack. The other three madly scrambled away from the boss, towards the gaping throng of players that had shaken off their attackers for a brief moment.

Kirito turned deathly pale as the blue polygons showered on to the floor as he looked on in horror, tears blurring the edge of his vision. The blue rain triggered something in his mind, causing him to collapse to the ground dry-heaving.

Leafa who was by his side, with tears in her eyes, tried to shake him out of his spell.

Asuna stared wide-eyed at the scene, thinking, _'that could've been me.'_

Kirito was a mess, curled up on the ground, just like how he had been in the morning after his nightmares.

 _Two dismembered heads hovered in his vision, chanting._

 _yOu KiLlEd Us. KiLLeD us._

 _The faces were bloodied and grotesque, circling around him endlessly._

 _YoU KILLeD US._

 _The head's bodies crawled towards him, grabbing his feet._

 _YOU KILLED U-_

Kirito came back to reality with a slap to the face. Leafa, was kneeling next to him, hand raised, her eyes brimmed with tears. "Onii-chan! We need to keep fighting!" she said shakily, pointing to the chaotic mess of players that were trying to fend off a speed-boosted boss. The blue-headed leader could be seen in the mess, shouting orders to no avail.

At this, Kirito's eyes hardened, standing up quickly, banishing the nightmare to the back of his mind, turning into a calculating tactician.

' _A_ « _Nodachi_ » _, huh? It won't be dissimilar to the curved blades that the elves were using in the third floor. I can easily counter that. The weak spots on the boss should be the same as its guards, as it is basically a larger version with better equipment'_ he analyzed instantly, getting ready to charge in.

Leafa, noticing her cousin's body language, tensed to join the fight as well. Asuna suddenly stepped up, saying, "I'll go too."

"Alright. Let's go!" Kirito said calmly before charging at the boss with a battle-cry that his grandfather would be proud party members followed suit, with their own enraged war-cries.

At the sound of the three yells, the mess of players engaging the boss parted like the Red Sea and backed off, the unspoken '«Switch»' heard loud and clear, allowing direct engagement.

Unlike its minions, Illfang changed its targets without delay, activating the curved sword skill «Fell Crescent», swinging its sword in a downward arc at the cold-eyed teenage boy who was charging up quickly.

Kirito didn't take any chances with parrying the oncoming blade by himself, opting to use a «Horizontal» to knock the strike off its course with ease. While the boss was in its small recovery period after using a rather powerful ability, Leafa and Asuna followed up with two quick slashes at Illfang's knees before leaping back almost in time to avoid the sweeping counterattack.

"ASUNA!" Leafa yelled in terror, as the blade swept right over the rapier-wielder's head, taking her hooded cloak with it.

Everyone in the raid group would tell you that the air around the newly-revealed chestnut-haired beauty was sparkling as she stood up straight, if asked about it later.

However, there was no time to waste, as the oversized Kobold chained another swing aimed at said girl. Her party members reacted quickly, the pair jumping in front of her just in time to deflect the oncoming blow to the side. The regrouped party went on the counterattack quickly, whittling down the boss's already-low final HP bar.

Diavel commanded the rest of the parties to keep the «Kobold Sentinels» off the trio, allowing them to do their thing. _For now_.

After a series of back-and-forth between the three skillful players and «Illfang the Kobold Lord», the monster's HP bar finally hit the red zone, signaling that it had about ten percent health left.

With this, Illfang roared again, dealing a massive sweeping strike towards the three annoyances that were causing it so much pain. Kirito had preemptively called a retreat in time however, causing the blow to hit nothing but air.

"Switch!" the charismatic blue-haired leader called, shooting Kirito an odd look as he charged past the group, engaging the boss solo. "I got this!"

Kirito, completely thrown off by the glance that Diavel had given him, hesitated. _'Is he actually going for the Last Attack bonus?'_ He quickly shook off his thoughts, yelling, "NO! BACK OFF! IT'S TOO DANGEROUS TO ENGAGE ALONE!"

Because of the teen's brief moment of indecision, it was too late for the man to retreat as a solo player. The now-enraged Kobold Lord suddenly moved twice as fast as before, leaping away from Diavel's charge towards the multi-colored wall, rebounding off it and landing directly between him and his path back to the main group. Not that the path mattered any more, as the curved blade rose towards the sky, before quickly slashing through his back, sending him flying even further away from the group.

Everyone's hearts plummeted as they were frozen in shock, watching their leader get thrown like a ragdoll across the room before following the previous three players in a smattering of blue polygons. At the sound, the mass of players charged with fury in their eyes, without order, at the boss in order to avenge their leader.

After a few minutes of mindless raging and chasing after the boss, many of the players fatigued, their stamina completely demolished between the long journey and the fight. As a result, they slowed down considerably, and began to think coherently again.

It was at this moment that Kirito chose to speak up. "Everyone! We need to get coordinated again! Parties A and B, hold off the sentinels! C and D, heal up! E and F, with me!" he shouted commands as if he was waiting the whole time to do so, while charging towards the boss yet again.

All of the groups responded instantly, not caring who was leading at this point.

Kirito led the charge towards the boss, readying yet another sword skill for parrying the imminent blow. As soon as he stepped into range, Illfang lashed out with a snake-like thrust. Without batting an eye, the teenage leader deflected the stab, quickly whipping his sword back around for a strike at the now-exposed chest.

The two groups that followed him along with his two party members followed suit, hacking at any place they safely could while the boss recovered from its swing.

Feeling a little daring, in part due to the emotional stress he was put under, Kirito stuck around for a second swing at the neck while his allies had retreated. His poor decision was punished, as the monster smashed a fist into his chest, sending him flying into the girls in his party who were right behind him. The trio were affected by the «Stun» debuff for a few seconds as they were sent tumbling, the teenage boy's HP decreasing all the way to just shy of red.

The unnaturally opportunistic boss leapt straight at them, sword poised for a devastating blow. It swung downwards viciously, as the party of three looked up defiantly.

CLANG

The «Nodachi» was repelled with the swing of a massive axe, which sent the boss flying away a respectable distance.

"Thanks," Leafa said, looking at their savior gratefully.

"No problem. The DPS shouldn't be doing the tank's job," Agil replied, looking pointedly at Kirito. "Heal up. We'll hold off the boss."

With a small nod of acknowledgement, Kirito quickly downed a health flask as he stood back up, letting it slowly recover his HP. To his side, Asuna did the same, 'topping off' the small chunk of health that she had lost. Every hit point counted in a death game, after all.

Unlike Asuna and Leafa, whose postures were somewhat relaxed, the quickly-calculating teen tensed up, ready to charge in and intervene when needed, regardless of the status of his HP was.

His attentiveness paid off, as the enraged Kobold Lord overwhelmed the tanks in pure speed, delivering a rapid double swipe, forcing their weapons out of position in their attempts to block, and finishing off with a tremendous slash towards their exposed chests.

Kirito had immediately taken off as soon as he saw the start of the initial combo, leaving the startled pair of girls in his dust. With a shout, he swung his trusty «Anneal Blade» upwards in a system-assisted «Vertical», redirecting the blow towards the sky, forcing Illfang back a bit from the recoil.

"Let's finish this. Asuna! Leafa! Let's go," the black-haired leader shouted, charging at the thing that had killed four people. Immediately, the two rushed to his side, keeping pace. "I'll block the first blow. You two follow up and we'll end this abomination."

Wordlessly, the trio set out in a mad rush towards Illfang. The Kobold Lord, obviously not learning from the last time, thrusted its Japanese sword straight at the boy. Just like before, the kendoka parried the attack with practiced ease, getting inside of the demi-human's guard. The meteor that was Asuna stabbed deeply into its shoulder, while Leafa swung her sword at the other shoulder, cutting so deeply that pixelated shards practically came off it.

As the heavy blows took its toll, leaving the boss incapacitated for a brief period, Kirito rapidly calculated the most opportune place to strike. Making the decision in less than a second, he yelled savagely, delivering the deciding blow with a «Critical Strike», plunging his sword to the hilt into the boss's chest with the hardest hitting «Vorpal Strike» he had ever delivered.

With that, Illfang's final sliver of health disappeared, exploding into a large shower of red polygons along with the remaining «Kobold Sentinels», dropping Kirito with his sword the ground unceremoniously.

Everyone held their breath, barely believing that it was all over until the large, rather obnoxiously festive and colorful 'Congratulations' popped up in the middle of the room.

The room exploded into cheers. "We won!"

Asuna and Leafa talked animatedly to each other, gushing over each other's combat prowess, as Kirito just laid where he had landed, eyes closed, panting from exertion.

"Hey, kid. Good job."

The boy squinted upwards at the massive bulk of a man, before responding. "Thanks, I guess, Agil."

"Yeah, good job Onii-chan," Leafa complimented, walking up with Asuna in tow to where the teen laid, evidently done talking with her friend.

"Not bad, for a pervert," was all the girl had to say.

Kirito shook his head in amusement, sitting up and looking at what he had gotten for the Last Attack bonus. Before he got a chance to read the menu, a shout of anger came from the main group.

"Kirito! Why did you let them all die!" an extremely distraught Kibaou knelt near where the three players had their lives ended, his comrades casting furtive glances at the back of the room where Diavel's body disappeared. "You knew! You knew what was going to happen! Why didn't you tell us?!"

Asuna and Agil shot the accused a curious look before turning their full attention to the plaintiff.

"What do you mean? It was because of him that this boss raid didn't go entirely to shit," Agil replied bluntly.

"Yeah, even though I don't like him much, he was a key factor in this battle," Asuna supported, defending her party member.

"No! He knew the boss's attack patterns, what moves it would do, and didn't tell anyone else beforehand! Hell, he even closed his eyes, expecting the initial light to blind everyone!"

As he shouted, his poisonous words seeped into the minds of the surviving raid group members, causing them to rumble with things like "Now that you mention it…" and "Yeah, it wasn't even mentioned in the guidebook everyone was given…"

A ratty-faced (much more so than the individual with the moniker «The Rat»), short man raised his voice over the crowd, pointing at Kirito. "I know! He must be a beta-tester! That's why he knew so much! He must have hid the info from the rest of us!"

Upon hearing this a murderous intent emanated from the mob, who turned all of their eyes to the defendant.

"Tch," Kirito clicked his tongue, confirming the Last Attack bonus and equipping it in one smooth motion. The «Cloak of Midnight» flapped into existence onto his back. Turning around, his cloak snapping with flair, he began to walk towards the stairs to the next floor. "Beta testers? Don't lump me in with those plebeians. They're trash, the lot of them."

Catching onto his intentions, Leafa followed her cousin without a word. Asuna looked longingly in their direction, glancing back at the murderous crowd before following suit.

"What the.. that's…"

"That's no longer at the level of beta tester! You're a cheater! A Beater!"

At these words, the hard-eyed teen turned back around abruptly, almost slipping off the stairs. Not that anyone noticed.

"Yeah… a Beater. I like the sound of that. Just don't lump in with the rest of those crappy beta-testers," he said menacingly, adding in a half-hearted evil laugh at the end.

His party members cringed at his performance while the group below grew more livid, practically out for blood.

With his parting words, Kirito continued up the stairs, into the next floor.

* * *

 **Omake:**

"Hahahahahahaha!" Leafa and Asuna laughed hysterically, rolling on the grass in their fit.

The two had barely made it into the next floor before bursting out with guffaws.

"Ha ha. Laugh it up you two," Kirito sighed dejectedly, rubbing his temples, mumbling to himself, something about ungrateful bastards.

"T-the way you almost slipped on the stairs while turning around… and the 'evil' laughter!" Asuna choked out between laughs.

"You forgot about his dramatic cloak stuff!" the youngest girl added, giggling all the while.

Kirito shook his head, opting to ignore his party members. _'Maybe dying to Illfang wasn't a bad option…'_

Much to his dismay, the teen was unable to live it down for months to come.

* * *

 **Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz enjoy this chapter while you can, no idea when next one will come out… Please leave a review and tell me if you thought this chapter is still consistent with the rest of the story.**

 **P.S. You can check my profile to see if I'm working on the next chapter and/or how much progress I've made on it.**


	8. Hiatus note

**A/N: I just can't. Really, I just can't bring myself to write another chapter for this story. The characters are cringey, there is no plot, and everything feels so rushed.**

 **I couldn't even enjoy reading my own work. That's honestly what it came down to. If I can't enjoy writing and reading what I wrote, how can I expect others to as well?**

 **So, I'll be putting this on hiatus. I will come back to rewrite the majority of this and then continue the story (with an actual plot).**

 **For now, I'll be putting out random one-shots that suit my fancy while working on a new story, which I've planned out already. I kind of like the darker themes of the anime I've been watching (e.g. Fate, Oregairu), so it'll be going in that direction.**

 **Here's a sample of what I've written for the first chapter. May be subject to change, if I feel the need to do something different with the chapter.**

* * *

 **The Blackest Swordsman**

 _ **Hiding the stains of his past, the misunderstood swordsman struggles forward to clear the death game.**_

 _The first thing he could remember were the sirens._

 _His eyes closed, he raised his bloodied head off the ground at the sound of approaching, hurried footsteps. Opening his eyes and squinting at the sudden influx of light, he saw the camouflage patterned uniform of an approaching EMT._

' _Over here! There's a child alive!'_

 _He whimpered at the shouting, his head throbbing harder at the noise, moving to cover his ears._

 _At least, he tried._

 _The grinding of bones and the brief shock of pain before unfeeling numbness prevented him from doing anything._

 _The team of EMTs rushed over to him with a stretcher, lifting him up as if he were made of glass and placing him down gently before carting him off into the waiting ambulance._

 _The nurse sitting in the back with him fussed over him, cleaning the blood and small glass splinters from his face, talking to him all the while._

' _How are you feeling?_

' _Don't fall asleep on me!'_

' _I assume that those were your parents in the car with you. I'm so sorry…'_

' _What's your name? And your parents' as well?'_

 _Staring back at her blankly, his eyes as dead as the people he left behind, he answered only one question._

' _Kazuto.'_

 _He didn't know anything else, after all._


End file.
